Veterans Council President recuperating after serious motorcycle crash

A poster announcing the benefit raffle for Rochester Veterans Council President Dennis Sellers, who was injured in a motorcycle crash earlier this month. (Courtesy)

ROCHESTER - A fund-raiser has been planned by the Rochester American Legion to benefit the president of the Rochester Veterans Council who was seriously hurt in an Aug. 19 motorcycle crash.

Dennis Sellers, of Gonic, a Vietnam combat veteran and Legion Rider, is expected to be moved from Beth Israel Hospital in Boston to a Portsmouth rehab facility today, a Post 7 staffer said on Monday.

Sellers has spent the last week in the hospital's intensive care unit after he crashed on the way to work at My Friend's Place in Dover. Sellers, who lives in Gonic, was headed for work around 11 p.m. when his motorcycle came upon a downed limb in the middle of the road, said Norm Sanborn Sr., a past president of the Rochester Veterans Council. "He didn't see it till it was too late," Sanborn said today.

Sellers was taken to Wentworth Douglass Hospital after the crash and then airlifted to Beth Israel in Boston. It took 17 stitches to close a head wound he sustained, Sanborn said.

His condition was upgraded to good on Monday, a hospital spokesperson said.

A major factor in the fund-raiser is the raffling off of a handmade motorcycle rocking horse. Tickets are $2 for one, or three for $5 and are available at the Rochester Legion.

The drawing will be held during the meat raffle on Sept. 28.

Sellers is also a longtime member of the Legion Riders Motorcycle Club, said fellow member David Tyler of Rochester, who said he'd heard Sellers was already looking forward to getting back on his bike.