A whole new world of options has opened up for a local family thanks to the students of Maeser Elementary School. Maeser Principal Denise Williams organized the effort for the students to raise funds to purchase a jogger wheelchair for kindergartner Jake Cook. “The purpose of the project was to teach our students that when we all work together, our small individual contributions can make a huge difference and change lives,” shares Williams. The students were each asked to earn $1 dollar to donate. One group of students held a bake sale and raised over $300 dollars. Many kids found their own ways to earn a dollar to donate and in total the students raised $2,000 dollars, enough to purchase the special jogger stroller and a second specialized chair for home use. Another part of the service project is the students were also challenged to read a collective 2,000 hours and their reward would be to have Classic Air Medical helicopter fly the wheelchair to the school. The day before the scheduled delivery, the students still needed 48 hours of reading to reach their goal so the school did a reading activity and the students reached their goal in time. Thursday was the big day and the Cook family was there to be with Jake when the helicopter made its delivery. “I don’t even have the words to describe the feeling I had as we were landing,” shares Principal Williams. “It was very emotional. To see our students, staff and community gathered together to support Jake was incredible.” The Cook family has expressed their appreciation to all involved and look forward to many adventures with Jake that were previously not possible.
