i just made a payment to the power of one.

i wanted to tell you about why its 20 dollars.

my son Jeffrey is 10 years old and he has diligently been working on a CURE for CF. everything from adding more pepper to Alex, and good ole sunshine in a glass to water and god knows what…

i was going through your site in December and i started crying when i read one of your testimonials..Jeffrey of course does not like to see momma cry.. asked me what i was crying about. i told him what your foundation did and why i was crying… and he said momma i have a dollar. i told him that i would match his dollar and we would send it in. everything happened at once.. Alex went into the hospital again, we had to move .. bla bla bla… and i forgot about the dollar.

a couple weeks ago i was called by the office at school. (Jeffrey goes to a special ed day school as he is developmentally disabled, has Asbergers syndrome, a seizure disorder and is emotionally handicapped amongst other issues)

anyway Jeffrey was in an argument with some boy in his class about money. the boy said that Jeffrey was panhandling and that made Jeffrey a bum. and Jeffrey said no he was collecting money for the breathe for “yesterday” foundation. for Cystic Fibrosis so that his dad did not die and so that other people would get there telephone bills paid so they can call their family when they went into the hospital.

(yep i cried.. he ALMOST had it)

i explained to his principal what the breathe for “tomorrow” foundation was and what he was trying to do.

Mrs. H (the principal) asked me to come into the class and explain it. so i showed up the next day and told the class of 5 that Jeffrey was raising money for the power of 1 program. that it only took 1 person and 1 person and 1 person to give a dollar and by the end, we would have a million dollars. i explained that Jeffrey daddy had Cystic Fibrosis and brought in pictures of his scars from his double lunge transplant and spent about 30 minutes explaining what cystic fibrosis was and that it affected anyone, that it was like a huge bully that did not care who you are. that was that.. and i was free to go.

this was on a Friday. on Tuesday Jeffrey came home with a yellow envelope and said momma Mr Hewitt (his teacher) told me to give this to you and no one else.

he handed me the envelope and on the front of it was written. this is from our class. hope it helps.

enclosed were pennies, nickles, dimes and i think 50 cents in quarters. their was 11 dollars total. it was for your foundation. and i enclosed the orig. dollar that jeffrey promised and my dollar that i promised him too (thats 13) the 2 more for Alex and my son charlie, making 15. ( i sent the other 5 because it took me a bit to send it in.. i kept forgetting… maybe ill get the pennies to the bank now that i made the payment.) lol

anyway, i thought you might want to know how much my son (who is again proved himself to be my hero) cared. 11 dollars to 5 kids with all kinds of disabilities, and behavior problems is a lot of money. and by the money that was given, you can tell it was not just mom sending a dollar to school.

it touched me.. and i knew you might enjoy the story. when i called Mr. Hewitt and asked if i could have the names of the children that donated… he said nope. they just wanted to give money. none of us want recognition. so that’s how we would like to keep it. we sent it in dedication of everyone that has CF.

hope your day is great! i wish i could do more… but things are tight here… as always you have made mine great! thanks for doing what you do…

Kerriann