My son, Russell Caldwell is an amazing, intelligent, caring young man and if any of us had lived his childhood, well I doubt we would have turned out as wonderful as he is. He is a Sr. at Herrin High School this year, Class of 2025. Anyone who's had kids graduate knows the expenses are crazy. And unfortunately, my single parent income pays the bills with zero left for anything else.

The costs associated with being a Sr. at the bare MINIMUM of just a cap and gown start at 65.00. That's not including any extras, class ring, class sweat shirt, Sr. personalized tankard mug, yearbook, Sr. Portraits, or any book fees etc.

Russell is also a member of FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America), is on the ACES panel, as well as a member of the Scholar Bowl Team. He works in the Herrin Student Bank, worked with the school district IT guy all summer fixing and resetting Chromebooks, and just last week started to online college courses at JALC for computers/ programming.

Last year in FBLA he placed 4th at the State competition for FBLA in Database and Design Applications. He is signed up for State again this year which is part of the reason for this campaign. Going requires a payment of $120.00 by February 7th. That doesn't include the money he'll need for food etc when he goes, it's a 2 day event that the school takes them to, arranges the hotel stay and the students are responsible for the rest.

If ever a kid deserves to have all the senior trinkets and necessities, and all the fees for his college and FBLA paid without him worrying it's going to mess up his family's finances, it's Russell.

He has gone through so much in his short life. His father passed away Halloween of 2016, then two days before his birthday on December 02 of that same year, our house burnt down, leaving us homeless and penniless on his 10th birthday as well as Christmas. In 2018, on Thanksgiving I was in a motor vehicle accident that almost took my life, leaving me hospitalized with a broken leg, 2 fractured vertebra, and a cracked sternum and broken ribs until December 15th and unable to work or even get out of bed for the next 3 months. This meant on his birthday and Christmas 2016 and 2018 there was nothing. No gifts, parties, no tree or decorations. When I told Russell that I was sorry but there wouldn't be any of those things, both times he looked at me and said "It's ok mom, as long as I have you here, that's all I need". And he meant it.

Please, if you can spare a dollar, consider donating it to this fundraiser for my son. If you aren't comfortable doing that, but want to help pay any of his fees, you can pay them directly to Herrin High School or for graduation/ Senior yearbooks etc you can go to Josten's website and pay directly there. If you can't afford to donate I understand times are hard please share this on all social media platforms!! Thank you so much and God Bless!