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The Husband and wife team of Callie and Jeff Dauler, hosts of The Upside, have created a movement of generosity and kindness through their podcast. Callie and Jeff challenge their powerful community, known as “Upsiders”, to be bighearted and find purpose.
This week, Upsiders came through in a huge way by helping a family dealing with an 8-year-old son dealing with a terminal illness. Not only were Callie and Jeff’s community able to fulfill the boy’s bucket list, they were able to cover their rent and utilities for the rest of the year, pay off their car, among other things to lessen the burden on this family from Loganville, Ga.
About three weeks ago, Shelby Turner answered a question Jeff posted on social media, and told him that her son Austin had a terminal disease. Austin only had three items on his bucket list and Shelby was stressed about being able to do any of them. Austin likely has less than a year to live, and the diseases he has will get progressively worse so every minute to create memories is important. The three items: see the dolphins and otters at the Georgia Aquarium, spend the night at Great Wolf Lodge, and go to Wild Animal Safari. Jeff shared this story on his Instagram that evening.
The following day, the Georgia Aquarium scheduled for a behind-the-scenes visit for Austin and his family with the dolphins and otters. And, without even being asked, THE UPSIDE’s social media followers began sending money for the family. Callie and Jeff were able to collect enough funds to pay for two nights at Great Wolf (and Great Wolf significantly upgraded the room at no cost), and pay for a day at Wild Animal Safari.
THE UPSIDE community didn’t stop there. They decided to try to take care of as many bills as they could for the family to lessen the burden on them with the time they have left with Austin. Through their generosity, THE UPSIDE community has been able to: - Paid the Turner’s rent for 6 months. - Given the family $500 per month for the next 6 months to help with household bills. - Paid the balance of the loan on one of their cars, so they no longer have a monthly car payment. - Given Austin a $500 Wal-Mart gift card so he can purchase all the toys he wants. - Given Mom (Shelby) and Dad (Rob) each $250 with the caveat that they need to spend that money on each other
Callie says, “In all, we raised over $25,000 for this family in a matter of days. Donations came from as far away as California and ranged from $2 to $500. In addition, many people offered services to the family that they thought Austin would enjoy, including family photography, horseback rides, and a fire engine ride.”
Jeff adds, “People are awesome. I love this community.”
Check out Callie and Jeff’s podcast HERE.
Comments:
This warms my ❤️