We’ve been fundraising for 11 months now. We’ve raised $8,578.25 which means we only have $5,421.75 to go! During these last 11 months I’ve been trying to think of ways to show Jeffery’s strength, that even though he has these obstacles, he can do anything he sets his mind to. My first thought was his biggest passion, karate. Jeffery is 10 years old and got his black belt the Friday after he turned 10 this year. He worked for 5 years to earn that belt. Karate has instilled discipline (to an extent…he still has some trouble), confidence, and most importantly…respect. After I got it in my head that I wanted to use his skills in karate, it branched from there to think about his favorite thing to do in karate…board breaking! LIGHT-BULB! I asked Home Depot if they’d be willing to donate boards for him to break, they donated over 50 6″ x 12″ boards. I thought if we could get $200 from all 50 states, we would finish raising the money we needed. Jeffery would break a board with each state that raised $200.
Jeffery was excited to break the first state board!
Our first video was our home state, Virginia. We had done a fundraiser here and had multiple friends and family donate and we were well over $200. In the first video we told a little about Jeffery and then at the end, the clip of him breaking the board. Under the video I’ll post the totals for how much we’ve raised in each state. If we go over our $14,000 goal, the excess will go towards another family raising money for a 4 Paws for Ability service dog. At the end of this post I will have listed all the ways you can help and more information about 4 Paws for Ability.
Totals/Left to go for each State and Country:
Canada: $85 raised/ $115 to go
UK: $70 raised/ $130 to go
WA: $25 raised/ $175 to go
ID: $50 raised/ $150 to go
FL: $45 raised/ $155 to go
TX: $75 raised/ $125 to go
NJ: $25 raised/ $175 to go
MD: $10 raised/ $190 to go
MN: $15 raised/ $185 to go
PA: $30 raised/ $170 to go
NY: $25 raised/ $175 to go
IL: $25 raised/ $175 to go
NV: $25 raised/ $175 to go
WI: $8 raised/ $192 to go
TN: $45 raised/ $155 to go
MA: $75 raised/ $125 to go
Since we have over 50 boards for Jeffery to break, I branched it out a bit. A friend of mine sells Thirty-One, she did a fundraiser for us and donated 100% of her commission! She raised $131.75 for us! So we put a Thirty-One logo on a board and broke it for her! She loved it and asked if she could have the broken board (of course we give it to her!)
Jeffery wants to break more boards! So will you donate and help? All donations are tax deductible as 4 Paws for Ability is a 501(c)3 organization. Here are the ways you can help:
- FirstGiving: http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/4PawsForJeffery/4PawsForJeffery
- Mail a check/money order. Make sure you put “In Honor of Jeffery Staples” in the memo line and mail to:
4 Paws For Ability
253 Dayton Ave.
Xenia, Ohio 45385
- Call 4 Paws for Ability and use your credit card over the phone (937) 374-0385
- Go on Jeffery’s Facebook page and share the video, share his page, share his FirstGiving page….just sharing can help, you never know who it could reach!
4 Paws for Ability is a non-profit organization in Xenia, OH that trains service dogs for children with disabilities and veterans. We choose 4 Paws for Ability after EXTENSIVE research. They have a 90% success rate on 1st placements and 98% success rate overall. I only found one or two bad reviews of them and they were from YEARS ago. After talking to other families who have dogs from 4 Paws, I am confident we made the right choice. They don’t make us get rid of pets we already have. The kid don’t have to be severely disabled to qualify (the ones local, he needed to be a lot worse than he is to qualify). The wait is only 15-18 months from the time fundraising is finished…which is a LOT better than the 3+ years of other organizations. Feel free to check out their site. Call them and ask questions. Everyone I’ve talked to has been wonderful to us so far.
If you’d like to keep up on Jeffery’s story, feel free to like his page on Facebook
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