Kimberly Woodruff, a mom with three kids living in Lebanon, Virginia, received a photo from a friend that seemed pretty normal. As she began to understand what was going on, however, it was heartbreaking and hopeful, all at the same time.
Her son was on the street selling Pokemon cards.
Bryson Kliemann is an eight-year-old who likes many of the things that a kid his age would – Pokemon being among them. As the picture showed, he had set up a table and hand-painted a sign that read “Pokemon 4 sale”, almost like a lemonade stand.
His mom knew exactly what was going on and it moved her.
Bryson was trying to sell the things he loved the most – his Pokemon card collection that he had been working on developing for years (an eternity for a kid). She also guessed why he was doing it and it broke her heart.
The family dog, Bruce, had fallen sick a few days before.
Bruce was acting strangely and was losing weight incredibly fast.
“He wasn’t coming out of his cage and being the normal puppy he usually is,” Kimberly said. “He was very lethargic, just not doing good.”
They brought him to the Southwest Virginia Veterinary Services and received a diagnosis they weren’t happy about at all.
Bruce had parvo and the treatment was way out of budget.
Parvo is a very contagious virus in dogs that can be deadly if not treated. For Bruce, it was going to cost $700 to treat, a number that was way out of the family’s current budget.
When Bryson found out about the money issues, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Thinking in his own mind:
“I know everybody likes Pokémon cards so I just decided to sell them,” Bryson explained.
The little boy was willing to give up the thing that he valued the most if it was going to help out the little puppy that he loved so dearly.
Kimberly saw the photo and knew that she needed to do more, especially if her kid was trying to sell off his possessions!
She posted the photo of him with the sign online and decide she was going to make a GoFundMe for the pup. Their goal was to raise $800, enough for the treatment and any other random things they needed to take care of during the treatment.
The internet showed up!
As you can imagine, Bryson told a compelling story! They soon blew their $800 goal out of the way and were well on their way to the thousands. At the end of their campaign, they were finally able to tally it up and the number was shocking – $12,000!
The extra money wasn’t going to go to waste.
They bought Bruce some new toys that he needed and used the rest to help other pet owners who didn’t have enough money to pay for their own animal’s vet bills! When you get what you need, you can pass on some to others.
“I would have never imagined that one small, selfless thing that my little boy had done would have became so big with a whole community and beyond our community behind him,” Kimberly wrote.
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