Manalapan Dad Is Climbing Mount Everest For His Son

MANALAPAN, NJ — JAR of Hope, an organization dedicated to raising awareness for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), is sending a team of three men to Mount Everest.

Jim Raffone, the CEO and founder of JAR of Hope, will be travelling with both Dillon Doeden and Matthew Scarfo to Nepal, where they’ll be joined by a small group of Duchenne parents in a “Climb For A Cure.”

“Our son James Anthony (“Jamesy”) was diagnosed with Duchenne in 2013, at four years old,” said Raffone. “Doctors told Karen and I there was no hope… to just bring him home and love him until he dies. But when we found out there were 20,000 other kids in America with Duchenne, we decided that waiting for him to die–waiting for them to die–was not an option. So we founded JAR Of Hope,” said Raffone in an official statement.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, charitable foundations have not been able to hold their usual fund-raising events. “We’re hoping to raise $150,000,” continued Raffone, “to go toward clinical trials on researching a cure for Duchenne at the University of Florida. It’s certainly an unorthodox way to raise funds for research. But we can’t hold events now. And these kids are dying even as we speak.”

While on the excursion,JAR of Hope will be filming a documentary about their experience and journey. They will first bring a film crew to Katmandu, where they plan on recording how children with Duchenne live there.

They are hoping to bring resources to Katmandu to help those families, but require donations to make that possible.

Raffone, Doeden and Scarfo will leave for the excursion on April 25, and plan on returning on May 13. Before the team heads to Nepal, there will be a benefit concert on Feb. 23 at the Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel in Asbury Park.

“Mount Everest? Well, desperate times call for desperate measures,” said Raffone.

If you would like to contribute or read more about the JAR of Hope organization, click the link.