MIDLAND, Mich., May 14, 2014 — Team Elmer’s is excited to announce that the winner of the non-profit $5,000 giveaway in the Tri-Cities region is the Jayden Lamb Memorial Foundation (JLMF).
In addition to receiving a monetary donation, JLMF will be featured on a Team Elmer’s concrete mixer, which will be working throughout the region. JLMF will have items such as its name, logo, web address and additional Foundation information painted as a theme covering the entire vehicle, which will raise awareness wherever it rolls. The mixer made its first appearance today at their Midland plant.
“Team Elmer’s is a big advocate of giving back to the community,” said Tonya Wildfong, co-owner of Team Elmer’s. “With the success and awareness gained from the pink Breast Cancer Awareness concrete mixer, we wanted to share that opportunity with another great non-profit in the Tri-Cities region.”
In December of last year, Team Elmer’s announced the contest to benefit a local charity. The public was encouraged to nominate their favorite non-profit organization in the Tri-Cities area.
Finalists included:
From the nominees, the winner was determined from a combination of online votes and a panel of judges. The Jayden Lamb Memorial Foundation received significant write in support, receiving the most votes for any non-profit and collecting 45% of all votes cast.
“I was shocked and excited to know that so many people wrote us in,” stated Tom Lamb, president of the Jayden Lamb Memorial Foundation. “We are a new charity and to have so much support from people – it was exciting to us.”
The Jayden Lamb Memorial Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing time away for healing families who have suffered the loss of a child to pediatric cancer. The Foundation was started after Tom and Nicole Lamb lost their nine-year-old son, Jayden, to primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNET) in late 2012. The Lambs saw an opportunity to honor Jayden and to “Pay it Forward Jayden Style” by performing random acts of kindness for strangers. The movement began with a toy drive, collecting toys for children during their treatment and recovery periods in the hospital. The toys were donated in honor of Jayden, who loved receiving toys during his time in the hospital. Pay it Forward Jayden Style generated a huge following, with more than 35,000 people sharing examples of their random acts of kindness over social media.
The first Pay it Forward time away for healing happened in October 2013, when the JLMF sent their first family on a trip to Hawaii. The second Pay it Forward vacation for a Sault Ste Marie family was to Disney World in February. Team Elmer’s monetary donation will be put toward sending more families on vacations like this in the future.
“ We hope this concrete mixer will bring more awareness to our charity for families who unfortunately deal with the loss of a child to cancer,” said Lamb.
“Just to see families smile again and look forward to something, many marriages fail after losing a child – you see the clothes in the drawer or the toys - it’s not going to bring their child back but it gives them space to stop thinking about the everyday pressures for a moment. It gives them time to rebuild hope after pediatric cancer.”
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Team Elmer’s, a family owned company since 1956, specializes in site development, including excavation, earth moving, underground utility installation, retaining wall construction, directional boring, manhole rehabilitation, aggregate production, concrete ready-mix, milling, and crane/rigging, among other specialties.
For more information on the Jayden Lamb Memorial Foundation, visit www.jaydenlambmemorialfoundation.org.
