By JESSICA HARDING
Staff Writer
RED BANK — A new partnership between the JAR of Hope Foundation and Urban Coalhouse Pizza & Bar was announced this past month to help children with a rare disease.
The JAR of Hope Foundation was created by Jim and Karen Raffone. The couple’s 7-year-old son, James Anthony (Jamesy), was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystophy back in 2013.
There is no cure for this fatal illness. Those who are diagnosed may be in wheelchairs during their early teen years and may not make it past their twenties.
Urban Coalhouse Pizza & Bar, which has locations in Red Bank, Hoboken, Brick and Paramus, has decided to partner with this powerful organization.
Co-founder of the restaurant, Andrew Cameron, was looking for a charity he could partner with and knew this was the right one.
“A friend introduced me to Jim recently, and I was very moved by his story,” he said. “We’d been searching for the right charitable foundation with which to partner and JAR of Hope was a perfect fit.”
Because the disease is so rare, pharmaceutical companies are not investing enough money to find a cure.
The two groups are partnering on a “$1 Million, 1 Child, 1 Year” campaign to raise $1 million to fund one patient in a pharmaceutical study.
Urban Coalhouse Pizza & Bar serves around 8,000 customers every single week. Its employees, business connections and customers have been spreading the word about the JAR of Hope Foundation.
Raffone is very pleased with what the restaurant has done already.
“Urban Coalhouse is putting its money where its mouth is. They donated $5,000 to our JAR of Hope team at the New York City Marathon. They’re getting involved in a wide scope of community fundraising activities to fight this disease.”
According to Raffone, the pizzeria is even placing lime butterflies — JAR of Hope’s symbol — on their windows and pizza boxes.
Cameron is willing to do anything to help this cause.
“I believe in Jim Raffone and his journey,” he said, “and we are in this fight to the end.”