Facebook supporters help out with boy’s New York city dream
Ngaruawahia nine-year-old Chase Annan is using Facebook to help him achieve his dream of spending Christmas in a snow-covered New York City.
Chase, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, needs to raise $20,000 to realise his Manhattan Christmas and so far has raised $500 through the social networking site.
Mum Donna Slater helped Chase start the Facebook page to ask not for money; instead for support and fundraising ideas.
“Facebook is a part of Chase’s generation, and is what’s going to help him achieve his dream. We don’t want to focus on people giving us money, we just want ideas, preferably ideas that Chase can participate in.”
And the response has been overwhelming. The page already has over 400 members and ideas and donations have been flowing in.
“It just snowballed. 85 per cent are people we don’t even know. A stranger in Christchurch is supporting us by having an Indian dance festival, and there’s a car boot sale happening in Warkworth. So all these little things are starting to happen and we haven’t asked for it, we’ve just asked for ideas and people are going, ‘okay I have an idea, but I’m going to do it anyway.’”
Some ideas that have been put into practice include a “buy a brick” webpage where for US$10 you can upload a picture or logo onto Chase’s wall; and an opportunity for businesses to get a picture of their logo taken with Chase at a famous New York icon by sponsoring him $100 a month for 12 months.
One Facebook supporter is former Prime Minister Helen Clark who Chase met two years ago.
“He wants to go and see Helen at the UN when we are in New York. They stay in touch.”
Chase’s parents had originally planned on saving for the trip themselves but when they were recently told they would have to find $65 a week to pay for Chase’s nutritional supplements they realised they would have to find other ways to raise the money.
“It was heartbreaking. I can’t fix his CF, I can only earn so much money, and I have a 2 year old at home as well. But instead of focussing on what we can’t do we are focussing on what we can do.”
It’s important to Chase’s parents that he be involved as possible in the process, and he has saved $1300 of his own money, set aside from Christmas, birthdays and pocket money.
“He needs to be part of the whole journey, because I think he’ll appreciate it and get that sense of working for it a bit more. It’s about him being able to set a goal and working to achieve it. Sometimes it is hard living with CF. There are pills everyday, physio twice a day, being on a pump, school holidays spent in hospital. So having something to focus on has been good, it’s given him something positive to look forward to.”
Chase is most looking forward to Christmas Eve shopping in one of the world’s biggest toy stores, FAO Schwarz, which features in his favourite movie Home Alone 2.
– To support Chase on Facebook click here or email Ms Slater at donna@marketing4u.co.nz
