This is the story of two amazing kids. The first is Michaela “Mickey” Merrill, a young child suffering from Sanfilippo Syndrome, more commonly known as Children’s Alzheimers, a terminal genetic disorder. Her family describes Mickey as a “bubbly, delightful little girl with a big belly laugh and a giant smile she shares with everyone.” And the second child is a pre-teen named Blakely Stawicki.
At the young age of 11, Blakely knew she had the power to make a difference, and she didn’t falter with her decision. One day, Blakely overheard her step-father. He happens to know Mickey’s family and the fundraising the family was doing. Blakely decided to get involved and lend a hand. In short, she wanted to help Mickey’s family in fundraising and continues to do so on their site.
Why Mickey’s Family Fundraises
Since MPS-III is a rare disease-only 1 in 70,000 births, much of the research gets privately funded by dedicated foundations like the Team Sanfilippo Foundation. Further, they raise funds to contribute to the Foundation to find a cure and treatments for Michaela and all kids like her who have this terrible disease.
Kid-Friendly Fundraiser
When Blakely decided to do a fundraiser for Mickey and the cause, she got on the internet to research fundraisers. Ultimately, she fell upon Funds2Orgs. And as she said in a Newark Post article, “‘I wanted to help her,’ Blakely said. ‘I found a kid-friendly way to help.'”
She decided to use Funds2Orgs, the parent company of Shoes With Heart. Each don’t require the sale of merchandise or collection of money. So all that Blakely needed was to collect gently worn, used and new shoes. And upon completion of the shoe drive fundraiser, the company issued a check. The check gets issued based on the total weight of the shoes collected.
Blakely and Her School
Blakely is a young activist seeking to make the world a better place. But, she also knew that to collect as many shoes as possible, she needed a helping hand from the community. For example, Blakely figured she wanted to get 600 families. So one of the best places to start was with her school. However, she also considered her school community to be of importance. Therefore, she wanted to split the funds raised through the shoe drive fundraiser between Mickey and her school, St. John the Beloved.
Blakely scheduled a meeting with her school principal, prepared her notes to ask for the school community’s help, and then made her pitch. Ultimately, the school principal agreed to allow the school and its families to get involved in Blakely’s shoe drive fundraiser.
Outreach
Blakely was determined to make her shoe drive fundraiser a great success, and so she pulled out all of the stops with the support and help of her parents and the community, including 10 of her friends whom she recruited as volunteers.
With her volunteers, Blakely promoted the shoe drive fundraiser to benefit Mickey and St. John the Beloved School through multiple means, including,
- The home and school association.
- Sending mass emails.
- Placing announcements in the local church bulletin and community board.
- Connecting with Blakely’s basketball and athletic program directors to ask for their support.
- Posting on social media, especially Facebook.
- Placing boxes and containers in the school, so kids and their families had a drop-off to put their gently worn, used and new shoes.
What Success Looks Like
Also, Blakely, her parents, and volunteers canvased the local neighborhoods by going door-to-door asking for shoe contributions. And, because we live in the digital age, they used the Next Door app, a private social networking app for neighborhoods. By posting on Next Door, more community members became aware of the shoe drive fundraiser and wanted to donate.
Blakely successfully collected 1,800 pairs of gently worn, used and new shoes, and she met her goal. The Shoes With Heart and Funds2Orgs team got inspired by Blakely’s leadership and knowledge that one person can make a difference.
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We’re very proud of our niece…she is a special person.