Heifer International gives the gift of animals

Teen organizes chiropractic drive
In September 2005, Faust wrote a three-page letter and sent it to the 500-plus clients at her mother’s clinic, Family Chiropractors. Faust also approached local schools about donations.

On Christmas Eve, the chiropractic clinic hosted a fundraiser for Faust’s project: any patient needing an adjustment could come in — as long as the money was given to Heifer.

Faust ended up with nearly $10,000, or enough for two Gift Arks.

“I was totally shocked when the checks started coming in,” Faust said. “It was really inspiring to find out that all these people in my community were willing to pitch in and help.”

Heifer’s concept of their clients’ self-reliance is what attracted Brown and his wife, DeAnna, to the charity while researching organizations to which they could donate, he said.

The couple spent more than a year researching different charitable organizations that were in sync with their values where they could donate some of the corporate money, Brown said. And Heifer seemed to keep popping up in their research.

“We like the way the organization is run from a business standpoint,” Brown said. “I’m very big on self-reliance — moving people who are currently locked up in poverty to self-respect and using animals to do it.”

‘It was like somebody ringing a bell’
Former UPS Chief Executive Officer Kent “Oz” Nelson and his wife, Anne Starr, had donated to Heifer for the past four years at Christmas, but decided to give strictly Heifer gifts to friends and family last year.

Starr said the family collected money that they had budgeted for material gifts for a donation to the charity.

“What I think is good about it is so often we give gifts and we do them out of a sense of obligation,” Starr said. “I just got to thinking about how many times I buy at Christmas especially when I know good and well I buy something that people don’t want or need. It was like somebody ringing a bell saying ’Hello, here’s another thing you can do at Christmas.”’

Nelson also decided to pass Heifer gifts along to his grandchildren, who receive a Heifer gift card in their stockings every year. He and his wife hope it will inspire the next generation to follow Heifer’s philosophy of passing on the gift.

“We have so much and it’s really our responsibility to give other folks a hand up,” Starr said. “For a small amount of money that I can say I did something that will help somebody in a very significant way.”

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