My nine year old daughter Jessica is in the 4th grade and has been very involved in doing charity and volunteer work including fundraising and special projects for the Cerebral Palsy Association of Middlesex County, The Special Olympics, The Walk for Breast Cancer, and the Soup Kitchen in Asbury Park, NJ.

Additionally, for the work she did for the Cerebral Palsy Assoc, she won the President’s Volunteer Service Silver Award which was designed by President Bush. She was the youngest child in Monmouth County to be awarded this medal. The award included a Personalized Certificate from the Service Award Committee, a Silver Presidential Lapel Pin, a Letter from the President of the United States, and a Letter from the President’s Council on Service & Civic Participation.  She also received a special award certificate from the Girl Scouts of Monmouth County.

She has decided to start a new fundraiser that will allow her to purchase stuffed animals for underprivileged and sick children in Monmouth/Ocean County.  She thought the places that would best be served by her charity work are thenUnited Way of Monmouth County, Farmingdale, NJ and the Children’s Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center, Neptune & Long Branch, NJ

In order to raise money to purchase the stuffed animals she has asked for local companies to donate shirts, sweatpants etc. for her to tye dye and then sell at their store location.

She has just ran her first fundraiser at my son’s Karate academy in Manalapan, NJ where she raised a total of $330.

Her next fundraiser will be with at Elite Sports and Fitness Center, Manalapan, NJ.  They have started her with the donation of 15 t-shirts. They have offered her a table next to their front desk during their busiest time so she can post signs, sell the shirts and keep all the proceeds to purchase the stuffed animals for donation. We have also purchased other fitness apparel to sell and we’re hoping for atleast another $350.

I was hoping that you would help my daughter with her cause by offering her a discounted bulk rate for any kind of stuffed animals you have. Color or type does not matter. She just a Mid-sized stuffed animal to give away so that other children can go to sleep cuddling stuffed animals just as she does.

I have tried my hardest to teach my daughter to be kind, have compassion and be giving of herself. As a mother,  I couldn’t be prouder to watch her try to “give back” at such an early age. While all of her friends are begging their parents for more stuffed animals, my daughter is giving all of hers away.

I would appreciate any donations and/or bulk discounts you can offer us order to help Jessica bring a smile to under privileged and/or sick children.  Please help to make my daughter’s dream come true.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you so much for your generosity. I wish you could have seen Jessica’s face when she read your e-mail! She was so excited she started screaming and jumping up and down. Of course she immediately wanted to go to your web site and choose which stuffed animals she wanted to purchase. As we go through this process I am trying to teach her budgeting, planning, time management etc. So I am copying you on a spreadsheet that we put together as we went through your web site in order to determine how many stuffed animals we can purchase within our budget.

Jess has another fundraising event that will be held at Elite Fitness Center and we are hoping to raise at least another $300.  So based upon that assumption we increased our purchase of stuffed animals in order to reach as many children as possible.  Now we’re hoping that we will find someone as generous as you who will offer us a discount on gift bags.  I am amazed that I’ve probably sent about 15 e-mails to card/gift wrapping manufacturers and not one company is willing to offer anything.  So we’ll probably wind up spending more on the wrapping than on the stuffed animals.

But regardless, we are so thrilled with your offer and I wish you lived closer so I could bring Jessica in personally to thank you.  You are a very kind, generous and compassionate man, exactly the kind of person I am trying to raise my children to become.YOU are the inspiration!  And yes, of course you may use Jessica as a success story on your web site. Let me know if you need any additional information – she is so excited and so proud that you’ve chosen her as a “success” story.