Hi, there! How's it going? I hope you're doing great!
I'd like to tell you a bit about myself. My name is Moishy Eisner and I'm 18 years old. I have Nemaline Myopathy which is a muscular dystrophy. For more information... feel free to Google it! :) In a nutshell, it's a condition which weakens my skeletal muscles. I've a got a ventilator which helps me breathe, a feeding tube through which I receive all of my nutrition, and a wheelchair. That's me at first glance.

But let's go deeper.

I was just around 13 or 14 when my self-esteem took a turn for the worse. Didn't see my true worth. Thought that my disability prevented me from having any real potential. Thought that I was nothing but what the world perceived me as; an existence.

But that's not what Chai Lifeline saw.

In 2008, when I was seven years old, I got the news that I'd been accepted to Camp Simcha Special, which is a project of Chai Lifeline. And boy, did I scream my brains out! I was on top of the world. When the summer rolled around, a whole new world opened up before my eyes. A world where everyone was happy. A world where you can leave your life back home behind. A place where you can forget about your disabilities and limitations and just be yourself. I saw and felt an atmosphere of pure love, acceptance, and caring. This past summer was my eleventh year in Camp Simcha Special. In this beautiful and holy place, you have friends who understand how you feel. Friends who go through what you go through. Friends who see you as a person and not an illness. Friends that you can look up to. Friends for life. I can confidently say that Chai Lifeline is one of the main reasons that I eventually saw just how much potential I have and how much I can do in this world. Without exaggeration, Chai Lifeline literally changed my life and made me a different person.

This summer will be the last one that I’ll be spending in camp. I’m not sure when it’ll hit me. Maybe it'll be when the entire camp is out on the porch, singing together and watching the sunset. It might be when me and some friends are chilling at the hammocks in the beautiful weather. Perhaps it'll hit me on the last night of camp, or as the bus pulls away from the home I knew for twelve years. The place that made me who I am.

I want to pay them back.
They changed me, and I want to do what I can to help them change more lives.

Chai Lifeline is more than just Camp Simcha Special. It's an organization dedicated to healing hearts, building lives, and helping people achieve great things. Besides for Camp Simcha Special, which is for kids with lifelong illnesses, there's also Camp Simcha, a camp that's there for kids with cancer. Chai Lifeline also has weekend retreats for campers, as well as for parents and families.

Chai Lifeline is there in those dark moments, too.
They provide one-on-one family counseling, as well as trauma and bereavement workshops for families, schools, and communities when tragedy strikes.

The need that siblings of the ill and disabled have for additional attention and care hasn't fallen under Chai Lifeline's radar either. That's why they offer sibling mentoring, along with tutoring and activities through i-Shine afterschool national programs.

The list - which includes meal deliveries to hospitals and homes, rides to medical appointments, and insurance advocacy - goes on and on, never failing to testify for all the love and concern that goes into everything Chai Lifeline does.

For 48 hours, you have the opportunity to help out with a campaign that'll be running, during which every donation given will be matched by an amazing donor. Every penny will be going to this epic organization, and, among other things, will be used to help with the fifteen percent increase that they've seen in their clientele.

With that, I’m honored to ask you to help me reach my fundraising goal of five thousand dollars. I’d like to ask you to donate whatever you can to Chai Lifeline. By doing this, you will be supporting an organization which provides physical, emotional, and financial support for children with disabilities and their families. Part of the light that Chai Lifeline shines into their lives can be from you.

Chai Lifeline. We fight illness with love.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Moishy Eisner