Supporting The Family Fund - Mark's Story

Why we support the Family Fund

My son Jack has Autism and profound special needs. He’s 21 now and loves nothing more than being out on the road with me in old VWs – he grew up being driven around in VWs – back then it was possible to buy them for a few hundred dollars and fix them up cheaply. The running costs, including insurance, were also much lower than driving a modern car.

Jack & I rollin' in my old '68 Sunroof Bug back in 2015 - the smile says everything:

As a family, we often found it hard to balance working and care commitments, as well as the huge fights we had with the education system about his schooling and finding a school to meet his needs. We eventually got him into a suitable school 50 miles from home, on the condition that we transport him every day.

Jack on a trip to France - with help from The Family Fund - back in 2010:

Finding time to balance work, care and transport was often hard, and it impacted us a lot financially. Finding places to take Jack on holiday that would be peaceful and suitable for his needs was also a challenge. When we found out about the Family Fund, it gave us hope that we could get the chance to go away on a nice holiday, and their grants supported us on a few occasions, meaning we could get a much-needed vacation break as a family.

Jack with my '68 Bug in Winter 2024:

Our Choice to Pledge 1% of Sales - Sitewide

Over the last few years, I’ve been trying to find a way I could support a charity that helps parents and families of children with disabilities, as I know firsthand how hard life can be for these families. Luckily, I found a way to directly support The Family Fund by automatically donating 1% of the sales from barefoot INC. to them using the Pledge Give & Grow app.

Round-ups

In addition, we’re currently adding a round-up button to the site, so customers can choose to round up their purchase amount to the nearest dollar (or native currency, depending on where you live).

Thank you for helping us to support this charity and make a difference to families of disabled children and adults – it means a lot.