4 Paws for Jewell Jamberry Nails Fundraiser!

I am hosting an online party through Jamberry Nail Wraps independent consultant Bobbie Mauss. Jamberry Nails will donate 10% of all purchases to 4 Paws for Ability, and Bobbie has offered to donate 15% of her commission as well! That makes a total of 25% of each purchase being donated to 4 Paws for Ability in honor of Jewell! How amazing is that?

They have a design to fit everyone's style, and it's so much cheaper than going to the salon. They even have Junior sizes too! Check them out here.

Schnoodleware Dog Toys Fundraising Campaign

We have teamed up with Schnoodleware Dog Toys to run a campaign to raise funds for Jewell's Autism Assistance Dog. "Schnoodleware makes a fabulous line of dog toys to do just that. We invite you to browse our selection of colorful unique fleece dog toys and choose one that is just right for your dog. In doing so 10% of your total purchase will be donated directly to Jewell's fundraising campaign. Schnoodleware fleece tug toys are durable, washable and assembled in the U.S.A."

Just enter "4jewell10" at checkout to have 10% of your purchase donated directly to 4 Paws for Ability in honor of Jewell. By using "4jewell10" you will also get 10% off your purchase price.

5 Weeks of Fundraising Complete

I was trying to post our fundraising updates on Fridays, but I ended up getting too busy with the actual fundraising projects. Our weekend was full of me keeping Jewell occupied, so again no chance. I promise that I will try to be better about my updates.

Face painted.

We did go to the "Kickoff Celebration for the Summer Reading Program" at our local public library and attended an event called "Mad Science: Spin, Pop, Boom" on Saturday that was really fun. They had tons of activities for the kids, face painting, and a scavenger hunt. Jewell decided to try face painting and insisted the girl give her a beak, as well as a blue bird on her cheek.

Red Bird

White Dog

The "Mad Science" event was a cool show for the kids with a scientist that showed them chemical reactions between things like baking soda a vinegar. Luckily I brought fidgets to keep Jewell busy, but it didn't stop her from wanting to try and give the other kids bunny ears. Not sure why she keeps insisting on doing that.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

On Sunday, we went swimming at Jewell's Mommom's house. She is very serious about her swimming, and I am thinking she may grow gills and turn into a fish... especially after being in the pool for 6 hours!

Jewell the Fish

Okay, back to the original point of this post!
For week 5 fundraising efforts:

•  Eddie and I discussed the Yard Sale to benefit 4 Paws for Ability that we want to organize for September. The idea is to collect items to sell at a yard sale and donate all the proceeds to 4 Paws for Ability. Most of the items will not be priced and will be left to the customer to decide how much it;s worth.
• We also discussed doing a 50/50 raffle. Winner gets half of the pot and the other half goes to 4 Paws.
• I received the draft from Schnoodleware Dog Toys. They will be donating 20% of sales to 4 Paws, in honor of Jewell, just by using a special code.
• I mailed out about 16 packets to local hospitals and various other businesses. 

Jewell Loves Dogs!

Jewell and King.

This is Jewell with her older brother's dog, King. King is a Bullypit, which is a cross between an American Bulldog and an American Pit Bull Terrier. He is a few months over a year old and still very much a puppy.

This picture was taken a couple weekends ago and is rare in that Jewell has only ever had the chance to pet King once or twice before. King gets excited pretty easily and will chew on fingers. He doesn't do it to be mean, it's just him being a puppy. Because Jewell flaps her hands so much and also gets excited so easily, it is hard for King to stay calm enough to let her pet him and love on him. On this day, I worked with him for several hours and rewarded him for good behavior. By the time this picture was taken, he figured out that I was giving him treats for exceptional behavior! The picture that we weren't able to get was Jewell giving King two kisses and telling him she loved him! She was also able to put her face right up to his without him getting to excited.

Lola

This is my husband's cousin's dog, Lola. She is a Shih Tzu and is almost 7 years old. Lola would be the exact opposite of King, in that she is very calm and laid back.

The surprising thing about Jewell's interaction with her is that Jewell is normally really nervous around smaller dogs. Once she realized that Lola wasn't going to start barking or jumping on her, she fell in love with her right away. Lola even tolerated Jewell putting bunny ears and hats on her. Jewell was so impressed that she told Lola that she loved her.


Jewell also regularly interacts with my brother's German Shepherd, Shasta, and my sister-in-law's Chocolate Lab, Charlie. She adores both of them, and Shasta has also tolerated Jewell's desire to play dress up with her.

I can only imagine what type of interaction and bond Jewell will have when she gets to meet her very special service dog that is picked specifically for her!

Week 4 of Fundraising for 4 Paws Complete

4 Paws for Ability logo

Today marks the end of 4 weeks since I opened our fundraising efforts for 4 Paws for Ability in honor of Jewell. Currently we have raised $770 towards our $14,000 goal. I have complete faith that we will make that goal and that it won't take us an extremely long time to do it!

All donations to this point have come through our Razoo site and from donations made directly to 4 Paws for Ability, either on their website or through the mail. We have some events that are still in the planning phases, like a "Cut-a-Thon" and a Yard Sale, and I will be sure to release those details once we get all the kinks worked out. We are also looking at doing something with Jewell's school, and maybe some of the other local schools, during next school year.

What I have accomplished this week:

• Compiled lists of local organizations that I want to contact for donations or assistance in fundraising
• Created packets to hand deliver and mail out 
• Mailed out several packets to local organizations
• Discovered I already had a contact (or two) with the local Lions Club and hand delivered a packet, per her request to assist with fundraising

4 Paws for Ability has an amazing community of people that have already received their child's service dog, people that foster and train the service dogs, people that are currently in class for or awaiting class to start to get their dog, and people that are in the fundraising process (like us). These people are turning out to be a wonderful support system and full of ideas that worked for them. I truly appreciate their help!

I've had several people questioning when our fundraiser will be over. We will continue to raise funds for 4 Paws for Ability until we reach that $14,000 goal. There is not a timeline. Some people are able to raise the funds faster and others take a little longer. From what I hear it ranges from 3 month - 8 months for most people. Once we hit that goal, we will probably be doing another fundraiser to raise funds for our trip to Ohio for training and for doggie supplies. That fundraiser will be completely separate from this one and cannot be started until this one is completed. I will post details closer to that time and once I figure out the details involved.

Fundraising: Working on Packets

"In Honor of Jewell Staples" and address labels for envelops for packets

Today I am working on the packets to be sent out and/or handed out for our 4 Paws for Ability fundraising efforts. I've made lists of people to send them to, and I have copies of the donation forms being made. Currently I am working on addressing the envelopes for donations to be mailed to 4 Paws for Ability. I think they turned out pretty good. 

Finished product

Tomorrow is Fun & Fitness Day at Jewell's school, so I probably won't get much done besides going to her school. Thursday, the plan is to get color copies of the press release made, pick up the donation copies, and get some other errands done. Hopefully I can start mailing the packets out on Friday!

We are now also on Causes.com!

I just finished setting up a campaign on Causes.com to help our fundraising efforts for 4 Paws for Ability. The upside is getting the information out there. The downside is that I could only set the campaign to run until May 22, 2014 due to Causes.com changing providers.

https://www.causes.com/campaigns/77421-raise-money-for-4-paws-for-ability