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METAL chart homework due 10/18/2019

Mistaken text from a stranger leads Arizona
man to raise money for sick boy
Noah Jakeman, 4, with his mom, Alex Jakeman, outside
their Phoenix, Arizona, home. Photo by: Shaun Jakeman
By Cathy Free, Washington Post, adapted by Newsela
staff
Somebody had the wrong number. That was obvious to
Bill Clayten when he received a text from a "Sister Fink,"
asking him what time he'd like her to stop by with dinner. "Hey brother Jakeman, this is sister Fink, we
are bringing you dinner tomorrow I was wondering what time would be a good time to bring it over," read
the text, which popped up on his phone September 6. Clayten, age 41, who manages a luxury dine-in
movie theater in Phoenix, Arizona couldn't resist responding: "Oooh! What're you bringing me? I'm
allergic to seafood."

Abby Fink, the sender of the message, suddenly realized she'd mistyped a number meant for a friend, and

had texted a stranger. "Sorry, wrong number," she wrote back. "Their little boy is in the ICU and

dying."Clayten looked at the text, shocked for a minute. Then he thought of his own healthy teenage

son."What can I do to help?" he texted Fink. When she told him he could pray for the boy, Clayten

responded: "I don't pray, but I'd love to help with food, donations, etc."

Fink said she'd pass along his message to the family of the boy, Noah, age 4, who has cerebral palsy. He

had recently had a seizure and aspirated liquid into his lungs. Once Fink was given the OK for Clayten to

help, he set up a fundraiser on his Facebook page for Noah. It began: "So. I was texted by a wrong

number. I decided to mess with them, now I'm obligated to them. Who will step up and help me help

them?"

In just a few days, more than $1,500 was raised by his friends and acquaintances, along with dozens of

stuffed animals, cards and picture books. Several businesses and charities also donated, including the

Armer Foundation for Kids, a group that helps ease the financial burdens of families with children who

have serious medical conditions. "When I learned what Bill was doing, I was shocked," said Fink, age 40, a

mother of six children ages 6 to 18. "Who does that after getting a wrong text? There aren't a lot of people

who would jump in to help like he did." When Fink told Noah's mother, Alex Jakeman, about Clayten's

kindness, she was equally stunned. And grateful. "He asked Abby to find out what Noah liked, and pretty
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METAL chart homework due 10/18/2019
soon, complete strangers were sending us loads of 'get well' cards and books, and lots of stuffed animals,"

she said.

Noah was admitted to the hospital on September 3 after his seizure. It happened while Alex Jakeman, a

mother of five who lives in Phoenix, was driving Noah to a doctor's appointment."He started turning blue

and wasn't breathing, so I immediately called 911 and he was rushed to Phoenix Children's Hospital,"

Jakeman said. "It was pretty scary."Jakeman and her husband, Shaun Jakeman, were not strangers to the

hospital. Three of their five children were born with special needs, so they'd been in the emergency room a

lot. But this was different.Noah, who was adopted by the Jakemans earlier this summer after they'd

fostered him for a year, was rushed to the intensive care unit and put on a ventilator, said Alex

Jakeman."It was touch and go for quite a while," she said. "We didn't know if he was going to make it."

Because Jakeman didn't want to leave her son's side, friends, relatives and neighbors rushed to set up

meal plans for Shaun Jakeman and Noah's siblings at home.After mistakenly texting Clayten, Fink

reached Shaun Jakeman and arranged to take the family homemade tacos.Noah is visually impaired and

doesn't speak, other than simple words such as "yes" and "no," said Jakeman. But her son is able to

communicate by using symbols from an electronic device. "He loves dinosaurs and the color red and

everything Mickey Mouse," she said. "Noah loves it when I read 'Harry Potter' and he always has a stuffed

animal nearby to hug."Her son is also a fighter who has rallied enough to leave the ICU, said Jakeman.

"He'll still be in the hospital for a while," she said, "but he's no longer what we call 'scary sick' in my

family. He's on the mend."That is welcome news to Clayten, who now hopes to meet the Jakeman family

and Fink once Noah is home from the hospital."I want to tell (the Jakemans) how much I admire them for

adopting a boy like Noah," he said. "I don't know if I could be that big of a hero."Clayten said he feels a

little uneasy accepting praise for his role in helping Noah, who now has a GoFundMe account that has

brought in more than $11,000 to help the family with bills that have accumulated while Shaun Jakeman

has been away from work."I spent a short amount of time online, rallying people," said Clayten. "Everyone

else did the heavy lifting. But it's a lesson that I hope my own son, Maxwell, will take with him in life."

Alex Jakeman said she's still getting her head around the idea that a total stranger went out of his way in

such a big way to help her son. "Bill is an example of genuine human kindness," she said. "Humans at

their heart have a desire to help other humans, and Bill acted on that. That's a lesson that we can all take

home.
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METAL chart homework due 10/18/2019
Prompt: Based on the passage, how did a text mix up impact multiple lives for the better?

Use relevant and specific information from the article to support your answer.