About Us

Lynette Johnson photo

I am Ej, Taryns daddy, my beautiful wife is Debbie. We are married and live in Corona, CA. We have four children. Jayde, 17, Austyn 16, Taryn 8 and Payton 6. We are in all respects a "normal" family... only dealing with what is most parents worst nightmare, having an illness befall one of your children, an illness for which there is no cure and which is known as a terminal disease. We try not to look at it that way though, not that we have had a "easy" time dealing with having a special needs child, but to dwell on the negative is counter productive and does not do Taryn any good, nor the rest of our family. We are a christian family and it is through our faith in Jesus Christ that we have found ease and rest from the extream saddness and stress that Taryns situation presents and have discovered what true love is, and know that we have not been "cursed" with a tragedy, but blessed with a beautiful angel, meant to touch lives through our advocacy. Our family could have gone in two directions, one torn apart with pain and grief, the other brought together by love and grace... I am happy to say that God has seen to it that we have stayed intact and are raising our children together, dealing with the difficulties and just trying to do the best we can. I am not saying that its easy... every day is a trial. We're normal people and want to be treated as such... there is nothing "special" about us... we are struggling, dealing with the terrible economy, raising children, et, all... with the exception being...we happen to have an angel living in our home.

TARYNS SPECIAL NEEDS TRUST... WHAT IS IT??

We have established a special needs trust through Bank of America for Taryn in order to have a protected fund specifically for Taryns extrodinary medical needs. Also we are hoping to build this fund up in case something happens to us so that there are funds left for her care. Out of this fund we may also give to our choice of recognized 501c3 charities which deal with mitochondrial disease, research and assistance for other families. These charities may vary from year to year and, or we may donate directly to someone in need. Someday we may create a 501c3, but while Taryn is still with us, we have many extra costs which our insurance does not cover, and now with the state of the economy, with both of our hr.'s cut drastically at work, our fundraiser for Taryns special needs trust is critical to her survival. If you come to our event, MOTORS FOR MITO and if you donate to Taryns fund, you can be sure that you are helping... very much so.

Beautiful Miss Chelsea Lena preformed at Motors for Mito II

Jesserae came and sang for us

Todd from Judge Jackson visits with Taryn ( and Taryn ) inbetween songs

Musical guests also appearing were Jiggle the Handle & Amy Scruggs ( not pictured yet )

Yes, thats Luc Robitialle! His son, singing sensation Jessarae came and played for Taryn.

YOUR AD HERE... JK

"Motors for Mito"

ROOTS

Adam and Candi

Our event, dubbed, "Motors For Mito", was started in 2008 by Adam Martinez, Fred Roque and Ronnie Sotomeyer, officers from the Department of Corrections, CRC Norco after Adam and his wife, Candi, saw us on an episode of LAink. Ironically as it is, or we choose to call it a "God thing", Candi and I, work together, for Parks and Recreation, her in adminisration and I am in Maintenance. We had not yet met each other, that was due to change.

Taryn ( flirting with Corey ) and the original cast of LAink

tattoo by corey miller

The Corrections officers offered to do a benefit ride for Taryn... graciously we accepted and set forth to put together an after ride party for the officers and others who rode and also the party would help to help create awarenss about Mitochondrial Disease's.

We contacted the owner of Backwoods BBQ in Corona and he agreed to hold our first event at his fine eating establishment. He also hosted our second event at the New Backwoods BBQ / Steakhouse. He did this to help out one of Corona's own, he didn't charge us a dime for holding the event at his place... So if your ever in Corona, stop in at Backwoods and say hello, and try the ribs, best BBQ in the county!!

During the time shortly after our 1st event, E.j. had written a letter to Oliver Shokouh, founder of the Love Ride and owner of Glendale Harley Davidson, Oliver is a great man with a big heart for helping children and he invited us to come to help bring Mitochondrial Disease awareness to the event! Mitochondrial disease is considered a muscular disease by the the MDA, a main benificiary of the Love Ride. In case you dont know about the Love Ride, it is the worlds largest charity ride, LR25 showed approx 30thousand in attendance!

Oliver and Taryn

Assemblyman Jeff Miller speaks to the LoveRide crowd of thousands

We met Jay and Jennifer Dabney, owners of Skip Fordyce Harley Davidson in Riverside while in the VIP area of the Love Ride. Being as we live in the same town, Jay and his lovely wife agreed to help us out partially sponsoring our annual ride, so now we actually have a Harley Dealership for the riders to gather at the morning of the ride.

We are happy and proud to have the Corona Harley Davidson logo displayed at our event!

Jay & Jennifer Dabney

Taryns Hope 4 Life.Com

Bringing awareness and education about mitochondrial diseases.