Just after the stroke of midnight last night, hopefully right after the Anaheim Ducks turned back into a pumpkin, the Defending Big D fundraiser in honor of Rich Peverley ended.
In total, the campaign raised $2,736.17 that will go directly to the AED donation fund at Living For Zachary, and I know of at least one eventual company match out there that really brings the grand total of funds generated in Peverley’s honor to nearly $3,000. That’s 150 percent of our original goal and so amazing I can hardly stand it.
It’s enough to fund an immediate AED donation as well as give a head start of nearly halfway on a second.
(As a side note, to the person who added the $0.17 to the end of their donation, you are a genius and made me smile so hard.)
As far as who the AED is going to, happily enough, a Metroplex youth sports league was one of two organizations who already had pending applications with Living for Zachary. I’ll let the folks from L4Z detail it in their open thank you letter to the DBD community as well as our SBNation friends who helped us so much with this idea.
One word comes to mind when beginning to thank the Defending Big D community- WOW! Living for Zachary is beyond appreciative and ecstatic to accept this incredible donation towards an automated external defibrillator (AED) in honor of Dallas Stars’ Richard Peverley. All public events and facilities need to have an AED readily available, and it’s our mission at Living for Zachary to make that happen.
Living for Zachary is proud to donate this AED to Garland Pee Wee Football, a football league serving the youth of Garland, Rowlett and Sachse grades 1-6. Garland Pee Wee Football leaves no child behind as they find a way for every child to participate no matter their family’s economic status. Along with the AED donation, Living for Zachary will provide training for eight members of Garland Pee Wee Football to be CPR/AED certified.
Peverley’s SCA survival story and the contribution of every generous donor through this Defending Big D fundraising campaign sends a loud message to every parent, coach, athlete and child that AEDs are essential. Living for Zachary cannot say thank you enough to each supporter for making this AED donation a possibility. Together, we are saving lives!
By the way, we heard it was Duck season… GO DALLAS STARS!
Personally, I’d like to thank the Defending Big D staff (especially Taylor, who was a huge part of the initial brainstorming and planning, and Trevor, who was one of the first to come up with the idea to do some sort of fundraiser), our friends at PensBurgh for letting us model off their fundraiser from February and our friends at the blogs representing Peverley’s former teams – Stanley Cup of Chowder, Arctic Ice Hockey and On the Forecheck – as well as The Cannon, the Blue Jackets blog.
And a special thank you goes out to everyone who donated or helped us spread the word. You guys are the reason we were able to make a real impact on our community.
We got a happy ending to the Peverley story because of the presence of an immediately available AED. Now we’ve given the kids in Garland the same tool on their side.