Hi – I’m James Lacerenza, the founder of the ConnectiKids Summer Camp Fund, and MDA and Jett Foundation volunteer.

I am a 2011 graduate of the University of Connecticut, and I have cerebral palsy.

I have been a volunteer for the Hawthorne, NY District Office of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) since 1999. Since then, I have become a fundraiser for the organization, volunteering annually at my local MDA Telethon (formerly the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon) every Labor Day Weekend, and organizing the Shamrocks Against Dystrophy campaign in my area that has led to this fund being established, among other responsibilities. In December 2011, I began actively volunteering for the Jett Foundation via their Camp Promise East program.

I often get asked: So how did the Shamrock campaign start?

In January of 2005, I approached Stamford High School teacher David Bingham, and asked him if the school’s Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) chapter could sell shamrock mobiles during the months of February and March, with all the proceeds going towards sending children to MDA Summer Camp. Since DECA is a national youth civic partner of MDA, I figured it would be a natural fit, and a way for the school community to give back to those less fortunate. Mr. Bingham directed me to Howard Levy, the school’s DECA chapter advisor, and together, we agreed this was something worthwhile.

During morning announcements that winter, I made pleas to the student body, asking them to purchase $1 green or $5 gold shamrocks at DECA’s school store, with all of the proceeds going directly to summer camp. It was a resounding success. We raised $2,601 that first year, sending four children to camp.

In the years that followed, all of us faced tough economic times - MDA even had to shut down summer camps nationwide for the first time in 2009 due to the H1N1 outbreak. However, we kept raising money, and camp resumed in 2010.

Through a myriad of activities, we were able to present a check worth $16,056 on the 2009 MDA Telethon.  In 2010, we returned with a check for $17,000.00! From 2005 to date, we have raised nearly $110,000 all because of caring people like you who have felt my passion for helping these special kids. I sincerely thank you. However, the fight is still going on.

In 2007 and 2008, I was lucky enough to be invited to the camp site in Spring Valley, NY. What I saw there moved me to tears. Children who were literally dying…were living. And smiling. And not complaining that they had an incurable disease. The stories I was told—from the girl who was unable to participate but was subsequently cheered up by the girls in her dorm, to the ability for campers to swim in a zero gravity pool with their wheelchairs, to a girl who, though weak, was able to get out of her power chair and perform the simple act of honking the horn of a Corvette on display from a local car dealership…I knew then that I had to send every child to camp in 2008, and beyond, until a cure was found.

In 2011, I visited camp again - and vowed that in 2012, we would do even more to make the dreams of these special children keep coming true.

Part of the fufillment of that dream came in December, 2011 when I reached a cooperative agreement with MDA to add a seperate donation page for Camp Promise East, run by the Jett Foundation. Jett's founder, Christine McSherry and I had been in discussions for over a year and a half about raising money for Camp Promise East. In addition to serving children like MDA Camp, Christine and her team want to help teens and adults live out thier dreams at Camp Promise East, too. So, everyone agreed that this was a perfectly logical step in the evolution of the fund - I am proud and excited to represent three world class organizations at two spectacular camp sites.

Please help now – Let’s make a miracle happen. Let’s change lives. Together.

Thank you!

Sincerely,
James