On a hot, humid Saturday morning, you can usually find 35-year-old Jason Collier and his wife, Molly, at the LSU Lakes camped out near Morning Glory Avenue with an ice chest and a poster labeled “free water.”
The couple invites passersby to stop for a drink, and the conversation usually turns to the elephant in the room — Jason Collier’s wheelchair.
“I know that this is the first thing that people want to know about me and I don’t like it, but I know that I have been placed in this position for a reason,” Collier said.
Many people see the chair and make assumptions, but her husband’s mind is fully intact, Molly Collier said. Jason Collier has Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA), a neuromuscular disease.
Collier was diagnosed with the progressively degenerative disease when he was 13 years old, and has been wheelchair-bound since 1999, he said. He remembers being able to drive a car and even use a walker, he said, before the disease exacerbated to its current status.
One in every 50,000 people are diagnosed with FA in the U.S., according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
While his disease is frustrating, Collier said, keeps himself busy by writing — he’s authored a book about his experience with FA — working out with friends and serving others by sharing the gospel. That’s where the water comes in.
“We look at it as meeting someone’s temporary needs, but we what we really want to do is meet their eternal needs and that’s why we put the bible verses on the bottles,” Jason Collier said.
For the last year and a half, the Colliers have taken their sign advertising free water and a smile on various Saturdays to Baton Rouge’s popular running spots. The water bottle labels have been carefully peeled off, and replaced by bright colored paper with various bible verses printed on them.
The couple loved being a part of their church’s outreach program and began doing service work on their own, starting the water project in 2016. The Colliers met while they were students at the University in 2002, and have been married since 2011.
The couple met when they had a class together early on at the University. Jason Collier earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in marketing from the University. Molly Collier earned her undergraduate degree from the University and her law degree from Tulane, and currently works with the Attorney General’s office in Baton Rouge.
Next time you’re out by the lakes, stop by the Collier’s for a chat and a new perspective.
