Ron and Don raise over $20K for ailing 8-year-old girl

Update

A crowdfunding page for 8-year-old Jada Holloway sat for two years, thousands short of its goal. It took the KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don Show, and its listeners, only three hours to meet it.

“They started a GoFundMe page, but it sat there for over two years with around a quarter of the money they needed,” said Ron and Don Show Producer Nick Jarin.

Jada’s story by KIRO Reporter Josh Kerns aired around 3:15 p.m. Tuesday. By the time the show was over at 6 p.m. the GoFundMe page experienced a landslide of donations, reaching $19,900. The family was asking for $12,000.

Listeners donated $10 here and $20 there. In the end it added up to over $20,000.

With the money to purchase Jada a service dog, and a special friend, there is only one other important task to take care of: whether Jada will name her dog T-bone or Princess Peanut Butter; her top two choices.

Original story

“I’m scared,” little Jada Holloway whimpers to her mom as a nurse at Seattle Children’s Hospital prepares to hook her up to a heart rate monitor during one of her frequent checkups.

You’d think the 8-year-old Olympia girl would be used to going to the hospital. Sadly, she’s spent far too much of her young life there.

Related: Mother hopeful for daughter’s future with help from service dog

“When she was three-days-old, she had surgery. She weighed probably about three-and-a-half pounds,” her mom Stephanie said. “Had her first big surgery, but her heart defects were still pretty bad.”

Stephanie says she’s had over a dozen surgeries. A large scar running down the center of the frail little girl’s chest is testament to her health problems.

She was so small and fragile that her heart defects damaged her lungs. It’s left her unable to breathe on her own. She has to use supplemental oxygen 24 hours a day. But she tries not to let it keep her down.

“I love making new friends. Pretty much everywhere there’s kids, I try to make one or two friends,” Jada said.

That’s tough though when you’ve got a tube attached to your face.

“She’s at an age where a lot of the other kids are more afraid of her, which is really sad because they see the oxygen and they’re just not sure what to think,” Stephanie said.

There’s nothing they can do about the oxygen, but there is something they can do to make things better &#8212 get Jada a service dog to help her.

“She wouldn’t have to carry her backpack, which weighs like five pounds. She has scoliosis on top of everything else so the backpack really isn’t helping that,” Stephanie said.

There’s just one problem. A service dog for Jada has to be specially trained over two years, and it can cost upwards of $25,000.

Bellingham-based Brigadoon Dogs is the only trainer in the Northwest that even provides service dogs for kids. And while the nonprofit will pay for most of the expenses, it requires the family come up with $10,000 to help defray the costs.

Stephanie doesn’t work, home schooling and caring for Jada every day because of her fragility.

“We’re a five-person family with a one-person income, so there’s not a lot of extra money laying around,” Stephanie said.

The family pulled together about $4,000 from their own savings, family, friends and a go fund me. But they’ve pretty much tapped those resources.

So she turned to KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don Show for help raising the money. Stephanie realizes it’s a long-shot and she says she hates asking, but she’ll do whatever she can for Jada.

“My dreams for her would be for her to grow up and be an independent woman and to not have as many health issues,” she said. “I just hope that she’ll do the best with what she has and really love life to the fullest.”

“I’m really excited, but I’ve got to be patient and wait for them to get the money,” Jada said in her soft-spoken voice.

But even though she’s having to wait, she’s already made some important decisions &#8212 what to name her eventual best friend.

“I have two names: T-bone and Princess Peanut Butter,” Jada said with a beaming smile. “Because dogs really like peanut butter and if it’s a girl, I like pretty princess.”

You can donate to Jada’s gofundme campaign here.