Dear Friends:
On January 12, 2017 the daughter of two of our SoSH members (bagdadjamie and Kristine) was killed in a horrible drunk driving accident. It was Chelsea’s 21st birthday. SoSH rallied around our friends and provided support for them after this terrible tragedy—sending meals for over a month, and raising funds for any expenses and supporting an animal shelter that was near and dear to Chelsea’s and Kristine’s heart.
In September,the driver of the vehicle went on trial for two counts of DUI and Aggravated Involuntary Manslaughter and after the Commonwealth rested their case, he pled guilty and took his chances at sentencing with the judge.
Now, as we come up on the one year since Chelsea’s death, we're setting up a scholarship fund in Chelsea's name for a young person who, like Chelsea, is passionate about animals, and helping people in crisis, and is going into a field of study after high school (whether it is community college, regular college or trade school) to further their education or career. Our hope is that in this first year of fundraising, we are able to put together at least $5000 by January 12 which was also her birthday. I would like this to be sustainable, raising a modest amount every year, and for us to be able to present a scholarship to a student annually.
The non-profit I (and now Kristine) work for Virginia will be the fiscal agent to start out, with a restricted receipt account for this scholarship purpose, and that donations will be tax deductible (check with your accountant with this new tax bill business) and eligible for employer match if that's available to you.
Because my non-profit (a 501c3 since 1985) doesn't routinely take donations from individual donors as its primary funding stream I have set up our square account to take donations, but there is also a paypal option and of course checks are fine too--they can be sent to:
Clean Fairfax Council, Inc.
12000 Government Center Parkway, Suite 458
Fairfax, VA 22035
Please make sure that on the check memo line you write that it is for the Chelsea Fund to ensure that it gets booked correctly into that restricted account.
If you need a tax letter please make sure that in however you choose to make your donation, you include an email or a mailing address in either the paypal or the square message (or send me a PM) so we can send it to you.
SoSH has along history of supporting our friends and their important fundraising efforts—to the tune of over 1.2 million dollars over the past 10+ years. I hope you will consider supporting this one too, for two of our very cherished members and memory of their beloved daughter Chelsea.
Please reach out to me if you have any questions and I'll update you as we evolve this awesome community effort.
