Madison's Story

During Me Fine’s Hope for the Holiday projects, many of “our” families are touched by receiving. A local girl, Madison Beyer, has enjoyed the blessings of giving. Madison and her family knew that they wanted to help a family at Christmas, but they didn’t know how they were going to raise the funds. Madison came to her parents with an idea: In lieu of gifts for her birthday, she wanted to receive donations so that a “Me Fine” family could have Christmas.

After discussing it with Madison, the family formed a plan for her party. Madison invited her friends from school, friends from her traveling softball team and their parents, asking only for donations for the Christmas family as gifts. After hearing of Madison’s efforts to make Christmas special for this family, more people wanted to come and help her with her project.

The family that the Beyers received was exceptionally hard to place. This family had seven children and the mother. They had had a hard year. Not long after finding out their oldest son, Bo, had cancer, the father died after his long battle with the disease. He passed away right before Thanksgiving.

After her party was over, Madison had enough money to purchase everything on the family’s list and she still had money left over. After talking it over with her family and Me Fine, Madison bought a Visa gift card and put the remaining money on the card to help with any unexpected expenses.

When the mother went to pick up the gifts, she was overjoyed. “Bo was extremely surprised! He had more energy that day than he has in a long time,” the mother says. “Everything was just so beautiful. All I could do for the first little bit was just stand there and look at the gifts and wonder, is this for real? The little stockings with the gift cards were an extra-special touch. Everything was overwhelming! It was way more than I could have ever asked for. Thank you SO much.”

What would have been a difficult end to a difficult year ended up being a blessed Christmas with many warm memories for this family, made possible by the generous heart of a teenager. Because of her idea and her selflessness this family had “the best Christmas that they could have ever asked for.” She showed compassion and wisdom beyond her years when she decided to do something for this family. For that, Me Fine thanks her and her family.

Without people like Madison and her family, Me Fine would not be able to provide the type of assistance that we do. Charles Dickens said it best, “A loving heart is the truest wisdom.” Thank you Beyer family for showing your wisdom and love through Me Fine Foundation.

~Elizabeth Diaz