Congratulations to Jason Martin, winner of the 2008 Trainer Bowl presented by Kendalls Western Hats. Martin raised $12,826 for his charity of choice, the Lynn Simons Memorial APHA Scholarship Fund. Martin did a phenomenal job securing donations in the winning effort. He worked the phones and email during the entire week and was relentless in his pursuit to raise money for his charity. Congratulations for your incredible success!
It was a landslide victory for Martin as he defeated Steve Heckaman with relative ease, leading the final round from the get-go and never looking back. However, all was not completely lost for Heckaman as he managed to raise $1,933 on behalf of the NSBA Trainers Crisis Fund.
The efforts from these two great finalists combined for a total of $14,759 from their donors and GoHorseShow.com will gladly kick in an additional $241 to split between the two of them to bring the grand total raised to an even $15,000.
The highest donation for the Lynn Simons Memorial APHA Scholarship Fund was $1,500 from Renee Jobe or Scottsdale, Arizona. She will receive a Pure Beaver hat courtesy of Kendalls Western Hats valued at $1100.
“Thank you to Kendalls Western Hats for donating such a great prize,” says Jobe. “This was a wonderful cause and my daughter Chelsea (Bain) and I are thrilled to be able to help the Lynn Simons Scholarship Fund. The Simons have been so awesome to us and the APHA has been such a positive part of our life.”
The highest donation for the NSBA Trainers Crisis Fund was $1,000 and that donor will receive a 20x hat courtesy of Kendalls Western Hats valued at $450.
How did Jason do it?
We started with a total of 64 trainers on December 15 and by way of votes from GoHorseShow.com readers, we gradually narrowed down the pool, round by round. Martin had extremely tough competition along the way but managed convincing victories over Vicky Holt, Doug Huls and Robin Frid. His toughest fight came against life-long friend and business partner, Charlie Cole but ultimately beat him 51-49%. He then defeated Deanna Searles in the semi-finals. We received nearly 200,000 total votes through 6 rounds of competition over the span of 26 days. Click here to see round by round results.
In the finals, our two competitors, Martin and Heckaman suggested that the overall Trainer Bowl winner should not be the person who
receives the most votes in the final round, but
rather the person who can raise the most money for
their charity of choice! We are so thrilled with this decision and the end result of raising $15,000 for two very deserving charities.
A letter from Andrea Simons, widow of Lynn Simons, about Jason Martin:
Jason is truly an awesome individual! The girls and I are overwhelmed with his dedication and determination. What a positive influence Jason is to all of us in this industry!
We are genuinely touched and thrilled that Jason has been so instrumental in helping keep Lynn’s memory and vision alive. Its is truly incredible.
We would also like to thank all of the people who donated to the Trainer Bowl. This obviously would not have been possible without them!
Fondest regards,
Andrea
TRAINER BOWL 2008 Presented by Kendalls Western Hats FINAL Results[NPI]/Media/15/jpg/2009/1/FinalGraph.jpg[/NPI]
