JACOB'S FUND :: Our US program featured in International Innovations Healthcare magazine

Meet Andrew, a young rider from McKenna Farms

Andrew giving his horse a hug after riding

by Glenna Fisher, Jacob's Fund Director

The Red Thread Promise is a volunteer organization. No fancy high-rise offices. No big salaries. No big-budget fundraising. 

We’re in this for the kids. 
Always. Has. Been. Always. Will. Be.

But we’re human. We like it when people say they like our work. 

So imagine our delight when we opened an email from Global Giving (a crowd-funding site that helps us raise programming funds), and read this:

We have an ongoing relationship with a magazine called International Innovations Healthcare… they publish an article featuring a different Global Giving project every issue. For their next issue, they'd like to feature The Red Thread Promise's project "Give Equine Therapy to Children With Disabilities," which we think is great! 

We’ve been bursting to share the news, and now that the article is published, we can! We hope you’ll like this fact-filled, science-based feature on Jacob’s Fund’s support for hippotherapy and the kids for whom it’s prescribed. Click on the image below to enlarge and read the entire article. Or you can view the original at International Innovation Healthcare. 

Jacob's Fund's article in International Innovations 
Healthcare magazine (click on image to enlarge) 

Around the indoor arena

Give For Youth Challenge!

Tony and one of his favorite therapy horses, Pumpkin

Great News! Remember Tony? We’ve featured him on our blog as a Jacob’s Fund scholarship recipient , his heart wrenching personal story growing up as a boy with autism, and his successes in the Equestrian Special Olympics. 

We are excited to share that our Jacob’s Fund project, “Help Youth Like Tony Become Independent,” has been accepted into the GIVE FOR YOUTH CHALLENGE from Microsoft and Global Giving!

After the Equestrian Special Olympics

What does this mean? We have the opportunity to further help youth like Tony move successfully into adulthood, equipping him and others with disabilities with the life-skills needed to become part of the workplace upon high school graduation. Jacob’s Fund has supported Tony since he was sixteen. Now he’s twenty and eager to move into a group home and secure a permanent job. Our dream is to help him with that transition while continuing his much-needed therapeutic riding. 

Now we need your vote to win the chance 

to crowd fund on GiveforYouth.org*!

Microsoft has teamed with GOOD to find 20 outstanding youth-serving nonprofits to feature on GiveforYouth.org. We are excited that our project qualified! The top 20 vote getters in the Give for Youth Challenge will get to crowd fund their projects on GiveforYouth.org. Best of all, Microsoft will match funds raised during the challenge phase up to $100,000 across all organizations.

So you can see why we’re so excited (and we hope you are, too)! This is an outstanding opportunity and we hope you’ll help out.

Please take a moment to cast your vote by March 1st. Please forward this to anyone in your personal or professional network. The more votes we get, the better our chances to get this project off the ground!

Go to the Give For Youth website. Click the big vote button below the project name. Sign in using your Facebook info or create a username and password. Follow the instructions and make a difference in Tony's life!!!
   

During a therapeutic riding session in Georgia

Thanks for your vote!

GiveforYouth.org is a Microsoft YouthSpark program in partnership with Global Giving.

Vote for us!

For those of our blog readers who don't follow us on Facebook, we encourage you to do so! That is simply the best way to get up to the minute news on The Red Thread Promise's work.

That being said, the blog is a few hours behind Facebook in sharing some GREAT news.

Recently, we entered some photographs from our May/June trip to Haiti into several international photo contests. We received word yesterday that we are one of 75 finalists in a contest sponsored by GlobalGiving.org!

Our category, GIVE SUPPORT, has 15 photos. All photos listed in this category are from projects focused on micro-finance, humanitarian assistance and children.

Voting began today at noon EST (August 10) and ends at noon EST on August 17. Winners will be announced August 19.

You can vote by first liking the GlobalGiving Facebook page and then clicking “Like” under each photo you want to vote for. Of course, we'd love it if you would vote for our photograph of JoJo (pictured at left), who you've met previously in many blog posts (see links below for additional info on JoJo).

You can only vote for each photo once. The winning photo from each category will be be featured on the GlobalGiving homepage and GlobalGiving social media. One overall winner will be awarded $1000!

Please help The Red Thread Promise extend its work by voting today! Consider sharing this link with your family and friends as well. It is a great way to generate interest for our programs and the prize money would go directly to our programs. A quick, easy and FREE way to show your support.

Thank you!

~ The Red Thread Team

Meeting JoJo

JoJo's artwork

More artwork

Even more artwork!

Last, but not least

CHINA :: The Chinese Spina Bifida Project

We are delighted to announce that Global Giving has accepted two of our new projects into its fundraising website! Tomorrow (Tuesday, March 16th) happens to be 30% MATCH Day at Global Giving, so your donation will work extra hard.

Swallow's Nest: The Chinese Spina Bifida Project: http://www.globalgiving.org/dy/v2/content/search.html?q=5025 or type in "Project 5025" at the Global Giving site. A Chinese orphanage run by an American woman expects six spina bifida patients this year. Two prior patients have already been featured on our Red Thread Promise blog. There is absolutely no money for the surgery that these children need. For $5000, each child can have life-altering surgery. Again, tomorrow (March 16), Global Giving will MATCH 30% of the donations we collect.

The Haiti Wheelchair Project

We are delighted to announce that Global Giving has accepted two of our new projects into its fundraising website! Tomorrow (Tuesday, March 16th) happens to be 30% MATCH Day at Global Giving, so your donation will work extra hard.

The Haiti Wheelchair Project:

http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/haiti-wheelchair-project/ or type in "Project 5030" at the Global Giving site. The Red Thread Promise is working to get specialized all-terrian wheelchairs into Haiti. We are honored that a generous donor has offered to match us, wheelchair for wheelchair, up to 50, through the end of May. He will also pay the shipping costs, which are considerable (we're sending a shipping container). Between the 30% match (tomorrow only at the Global Giving site) and the donor match, your donation will be worth 260% of what you donate!

Global Giving

The Red Thread Promise has a wonderful opportunity, and now the work begins! We need your help! Global Giving is an organization where donors are matched with organizations doing work on behalf of children and families in need. Global Giving has reviewed The Red Thread Promise, and has allowed us to join their program, but to remain with Global Giving, we need to raise $3,000 from 50 different donors by May 11th!

We would appreciate any donation that you are able to provide. Due to needing multiple donors, you can see that a donation of $5 is as important as a donation of $25. Each will help us to meet the goal of raising $3,000 with a minimum of 50 donors by May 11th.

Please click on the Global Giving button on the sidebar to add your support to our mission in Haiti. Thank you!