Pizza Hut Steps Up To Help Emily Bowman

A national food chain is stepping up to the plate to help Emily Bowman recover from a hit-and-run accident that left her in the hospital fighting for her life.

Pizza Hut on Wednesday May 1 will donate up to 20 percent of its proceeds to Bowman, who was severely injured in the hit-and-run in Athens in February.

"This is a great way for people who couldn't make it to local fundraisers to help out," said Anna Lee Strickland, a Bowman family friend who posted the message on the Bows for Bowman Facebook Page.

The fundraiser will take place at Pizza Hut locations across northern Georgia, including the following locations in Cumming:

There's also a website, Bows For Bowman, available where people can directly purchase bows, wrist bands and T-shirts to support the cause. People can also still donate to the Emily Taylor Bowman's Medical Bill Fund at any Wells Fargo location.

Bowman was recently discharged from the Shepherd Center in Atlanta so she can continue to recover from the accident. Friends and family are still asking the public to help them locate preferably a one-story home or apartment where Bowman can live until she's ready to take on the task of physical rehabilitation. 

Since she's returned home, she's continued to make some progress. While she hasn't spoken or can't lift her head, Bowman's mother wrote on April 4 that her daughter has been able to write on command on a Dry Erase board and is able to perform other tasks on command. 

She said she hopes her daughter will soon be ale to lift her own head and eventually be able to chew and swallow food on her own.

"If she could just conquer this neck thing and speak, we would be in a much better position, but we will just continue to pray that God gives her the strength to get past this part and then we will just wait on Emily to do her thing," she wrote. "I just know she can do it. I feel like we are getting so close sometimes."

Bowman, a former Kennesaw State University student and Woodstock High School graduate, had been hospitalized in critical condition at Athens Regional Medical Center between Feb. 16 and March 8 when she was hit by a pick-up truck as she and a friend walked along Oak Street. 

They were walking on the grassy shoulder, investigators believe, when 22-year-old William Wilson Heaton's Mazda pickup left the road and then hit Bowman from behind as he returned the vehicle to the road. He left the area and abandoned the truck, police believe.

Heaton surrendered himself to the Clarke County Sheriff's Office and has been charged with hit-and-run, driving under the influence, serious injury by vehicle, failure to maintain lane, reckless driving, and open container, according to Athens Clarke County Police.

Editor's Note: Last week Pizza Hut held a fundraiser for Tripp Halstead, the Winder toddler critically injured in October when a tree limb weighing several hundred pounds fell and struck him in the head.