BOISE, Idaho — Jason Delgadillo tragically passed away in a mountain biking accident in 2018, Jason had a wife, five children and he was a beacon for the mountain biking community here in the Treasure Valley.
It has been a long road for the family, but Dana Delgadillo graduated this winter with a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from Boise State.
“I’m so excited, I’m going to be a labor and delivery nurse at St. Als and I can’t wait,” said Dana who put off school because she became a mother. “This was a big moment in my life and Jason found a way to reach out.”
This is where Tammy Rau enters the story, she bought a camera bag at a thrift store and inside the bag she found an SD card that used to belong to Jason Delgadillo, after seeing the pictures and video on the card she made an effort to return it to the family.
“I think we will be friends forever at this point,” said Rau. “What I thought was going to be a simple gift ended up being so much more, it was a full blown Christmas miracle and I had no idea when I went to go look for the owners that this was going to happen.”.
Tammy made a post on Facebook detailing what she found and a Delgadillo family friend named Karla Coburn spotted the post, she connected Dana and Tammy after praying for a Christmas miracle herself.
“I know Dana and Jason, Dana is this wonderful person she’s raising her kids so this is going to be quite a blessing to them,” said Karla. “As I was sending these posts the thought occurred to me, this is your miracle, this is what you have been praying for.”
The mountain biking community knows all about Jason Delgadillo, he created Boise Trails.com with his friend Kirk Cheney as a way to connect riders in the Treasure Valley.
Jason’s ultimate vision was to create the Boise Trails Challenge, an event that runs for a month starting in mid June, to complete the challenge people need to run, bike or walk a total of 171 miles of trails in the foothills before the deadline.
This trail has brought the community together and it means something different for everybody, for Jason it was a way to ride his bike, challenge himself, be in a place he loved with the people he cared about.
“Jason loved hard things, his adventures always had plenty of suffering and plenty of fun,” said Kirk Cheney. “That’s how he liked it, that’s why this is the way it is.”
For Tammy Rau, the emotions were raw, she just learned about the Delgadillo’s, the trails in the foothills, how much they mean to the people of Idaho and how Jason helped bring it all together.
“Most of us are going to pass away and we are never going to have the impact, Jason got to do something special, he didn’t get to see it through, but other people did for him and Jason is still impacting people,” said Rau in tears. “This has impacted me this whole week, to find out there was a tragedy and then to be a part of his miracle, his Jason magic, it’s amazing to be a part of all of that.”
Dana refers to Jason magic as those moments when Jason shows up for her and the children and this year it happened with the help and kindness of a stranger.
“Tammy contacted me on Saturday to ask if she could take some screen shots and print them for my kids and me for Christmas,” said Dana. “It morphed from being my little graduation Jason magic to a full blown Jason Christmas miracle, with the timing and I know Jason is around, and this is proof for me, my kids and his family.”
Jason was 38-years-old when he left us, Karla took solace in knowing that the community this family built would help Dana and the kids continue without Jason, and Dana getting her degree is an amazing accomplishment.
“It’s still always going to be sad, but I get to enjoy these moments when he sends a little magic, a little rainbow for me,” said Dana.
