In The News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Carol Shields
cshield@jbrf.org
973-475-0400

November 5 , 2006

12-Year-Old Boy Raises Research Funds With a Web Site and a Wish

Maplewood, NJ/November 9, 2006—Sam Sheffres, a 12-year-old boy from San Diego, California, has been battling juvenile-onset bipolar disorder since the second grade. After attending a fundraiser for research into another illness that strikes children, he asked his parents: "How come no one around here has a gala for kids with bipolar disorder—kids like me?"

Sam decided he would tackle the job himself. He first searched on the Internet and found the Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation. A whiz with computers, he told his father that he wanted to set up an e-commerce Web site and join online retailers' affiliate programs.

The idea is this: every time someone clicks to his site first and then clicks through to a retailer, advanced software tracks the sales and gives Sam a commission, or referral fee. He calls his site samscause.org, and plans on donating all of his checks to JBRF's research programs. The purchases don't cost the consumer any more than if they'd gone to the retailers' online sites initially.

Sam picked stores he liked (Amazon, The Sharper Image, Petsmart, Overstock.com, Lego.com and others) and says: "The reason I chose the affiliates I did was partly my liking of the companies. Others I chose because they could generate the most commission for the JBRF. I did this by choosing sites by their popularity or their commission percentage."

President of JBRF, Jeanne Langer, recalls: "When Sam first contacted us, we were unsure how a 12-year-old could assemble such a professional-looking site. We asked Sam to have his parents call us. Imagine our surprise when we got a call the next morning from his mother, Karen, who was laughing and said: 'Yes, we do exist! Yes, this kid is for real!'"

Karen and Bob Sheffres and all of us at JBRF are very proud of Sam's dedication and initiative. This young man from San Diego, California, wishes to make a difference—
One click at a time.

To visit samscause.org click here.

ABOUT JBRF AND EARLY-ONSET BIPOLAR DISORDER

The Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation is the first charitable foundation of its kind solely dedicated to research on childhood-onset bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness) affects close to 1 million children and adolescents in the United States at any given time. Abrupt swings of mood and energy that occur multiple times within a day, intense outbursts of temper, poor frustration tolerance, and oppositional defiant behaviors are commonplace in juvenile-onset bipolar disorder. These children veer from irritable, easily annoyed, angry mood states to silly, goofy, giddy elation, and then just as easily descend into low energy periods of intense boredom, depression and social withdrawal, fraught with self-recriminations and suicidal thoughts. Recent studies have found that from the time of initial manifestation of symptoms, it takes an average of ten years before a diagnosis is made.

Visit the Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation at http://www.jbrf.org.

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