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During Jamie’s last days in the hospital, we
spoke to him about the possibility of creating this fund. We told him
that, should we lose him, we wanted to create a lasting legacy for him beyond
the one within our family. We wanted to take his loss and turn it into
something helpful to other special needs children like him – his friends.
As a result, when Jamie died, we asked that
people consider contributing to special needs children in lieu of donating
flowers. Due to the overwhelming generosity of people like
you, over $11,000 was donated. We
worked with the Shelby Community Foundation and established a Memorial Fund to
disburse a $1,000 grant on a yearly basis with an initial $2,000 grant given to
the Macomb Intermediate School District – Macomb Infant Preschool Program
(MIPPS) in early October 2006. We originally chose MIPPS as this is where Jamie
received therapy services throughout his entire life.
Upon talking to someone about Jamie’s story and
the creation of the fund, she asked if we were going to call the fund Jamie’s
Smiles. Gretchen, said, “No, my son had only just learned to smile at
four months old when his seizures began and then during treatment he had only
six weeks during which he was seizure free enough to smile at will. As a
result, the name Jamie’s Smiles would not make sense.” The woman
responded, “But don’t you think that he smiles now that he is free to do so
every time someone helps a special needs child in his name?” We like to
think that Jamie is smiling down for that very reason. We have called the
fund Jamie’s Smiles to commemorate his beautiful, if too infrequent,
smile and because we believe that he can now smile at will and smiles every time
a special needs child is help because of his story.
Our funds are held and administered by the Shelby
Community Foundation. As a result, contributions to this 501c(3) are tax
deductible. In 2007, we opened an endowment fund to increase the deductibility
of donations made to Jamie’s Smiles.
Jamie was a “handicapped” or “special needs”
child. He gave love freely and taught us unbelievable lessons in the
unfathomably difficult and fleeting 19 months that he shared our lives. We
will never be the same; not only from grief, but from who he showed us we could
be and how we could live. We strive to honor his legacy whenever and where
ever possible.
We are striving to make the “Jamie’s Smiles”
Endowment Fund perpetual. It is our goal to raise $120,000 cash on hand in
order to make two yearly $1,000 grants available on an application basis for
special needs children’s programs and organizations. Please help us!
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