Community of Caring

[Title Card: Zoey's Story, The Community Fundraising Experience]

Speaker 1, Zoey and Jackie, Grateful Patient and parent:

The best part about Shriners is the POPS, the orthotic division, because without them, Zoey wouldn't be able to walk. Zoey was born with a disability, myelomeningocele, which is the most severe form of spina bifida. We have been part of Shriners ever since Zoey was born, a little over 11 years now. She finally started to move her legs. And that was just amazing in itself, because they kept telling us that she would probably never walk. She was going to be paralyzed. Finally, one day she took a step. It was just amazing. She was probably three and a half years old. Without these braces, we wouldn't be where we are today.

We decided that we wanted to give something back to let the community know that without this, Zoey wouldn't be able to show. And this is like a big thing for her, being able to care for an animal, having the responsibility, her daily chores. She knows her tasks. She has to feed them, she has to water them, pet them, talk to them, brush them, raise them. Grandpa Wayne went around and got all of the funds so that the steer could be bought at $12 a pound. And all of that was donated right back to Shriners. A little over $18,000 was raised for that. Everybody was just blown away. They couldn't believe that she was going to donate all of that money, because it's not a cheap animal to raise.

But we wanted to give back because we've received so much. After Zoey did this, there was a lot of people out in the community that said, "I wish I would've known, I would've donated to help the cause." Well, we said, "Well, this year, we will be in contact with you."

Speaker 2:

Young lady, what a big future she's got. How about it? Let's get those pictures from our representatives, from Shriners. Thank you. We know what they've done for young people.