My name is Paxton Clark. Currently I am a 7th grader at Beverly Vista Middle School. I enjoy playing sports such as soccer, baseball, tennis and skiing. I also have a passion for numbers and math. Since taking a finance class last year, I have opened my own bank account, invested in stocks, and even invested in a CD. I also like to cook.  
 
For my Bar Mitzvah project I hope to make a difference in children’s health. To help this growing cause, I chose to fundraise for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. St. Jude is a hospital dedicated to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Located in Memphis, Tennessee, it is one of the largest cancer research facilities in the world. Specifically, I chose St Jude because they don’t charge money to their patients… St Jude is fully run off donations or as we say in Hebrew, tzedakah. St Jude wants every patient and their family to focus on their child’s health, not the bills.  
 
Through my Bar Mitzvah Project for St Jude, I hope to impact the medical needs of a child. Every year approximately 300,000 children are diagnosed with cancer. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to more than 80% since it opened more than 50 years ago. By helping St Jude I hope that my fundraising will not only affect the children who have cancer now, but also the uncountable number of children in the future. I created a fundraising website for my Bar Mitzvah Project. I hope you will donate Tzedakah and help join the battle against cancer and the numerous other illnesses affecting children’s health. The link is: http://events.stjude.org/PaxtonBMFund

Additionally, I would also like to thank Rabbi Jonathan Aaron, Cantor Lizzie Weiss, Rabbi Adam Lutz, Rabbi Sarah Bassin, Shelly Kamara, Karen Porper, and of course my parents, for helping me prepare for my Bar Mitzvah.

You miss 100% of the shots you never take. – Wayne Gretzky