<div>Hi. My name is Ricardo. Today, I type this to you all on behalf of my little brother, Brandon Richard Paulo.
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<div>Brandon was born January 8, 2011. He was born with a heart defect known as HLHS — this essentially means that he only had half of a heart. He also only had one lung. The doctors had no faith that he’d live to see a full year….he went on to live for 15 years.
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<div>Growing up, I watched Brandon fight for his life every step of the way. I watched how his body was severely limited compared to a “normal” person. He went from being an energetic and happy little boy, to an exhausted, jaded and depressed adolescent — all in a short amount of time. Middle school robbed him of his smile. They bullied him for not being able to run or walk. He had a big interest in basketball….was never able to play. Throughout these struggles, I still saw a kid with big dreams. He never gave up on trying to live. After giving up on his hoop dreams, he developed a true love for coding — specifically for game development. He loved Roblox so much. He even started to develop a server with his group. His dream was to make it in coding…and one day even develop an entire game. He dreamed of getting rich to help his family live a better life. He knew very early on that we were poor, but we always tried our best to give him whatever his heart desired.
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<div>We all thought that 15 was a new chapter for Brandon. Just a month before his birthday, on December 1, his heart gave out on him and he was out cold for about 5-10 minutes. In this time, he said he saw our late grandmother and that she brought him back to us because “she said I’m not supposed to be here yet; it’s not my time.”
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<div>Unfortunately, that time has come for our little Brandon. On Monday, February 9, around 4PM…he went into cardiac arrest. He was revived, but barely. He suffered brain damage from losing oxygen for too long, and he was not able to function without all of the medication and life support machinery he had going into his body.
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<div>Saturday, February 21, was when he took his last breath on his own. The doctors were able to lower the amount of oxygen going into his breathing tube. Unfortunately, his body had been declining since.
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<div>Brandon fought for his life until his very last breath. The fight was finally over on Sunday, February 22 at 8:27PM.
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<div>The pain that my family and I are left with does not compare to the struggle that my brother spent his whole life living with. I wish to honor my brother and learn to embrace that he is no longer in pain and that he is now in a place where he too can embrace that he is no longer in pain. Any bit of help to give our little Brandon the most beautiful send off is truly appreciated.
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<div>Thank you for your time.
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<div>Long Live Brandon 
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Melany Maldonado

Brianna Goulet

Amy Levine

Stacey Best

Luz Carrion

Jude Roucher

Rachel Casper

Shawn H

Katherine Polanco

Jeffrey Fortgang

Anonymous

Grace Rountree

Tracey Meyers

Matthew Plassmann

Esther Fernandez

Marisa Vasquez

Guerda Montgomery

Cesar Carrero

Jasmine Kelly

Natale Ferraro

Help us send Brandon to a better place

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

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NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

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comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

currencyCode

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

writePath

Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

Influencer - Prod

US fundraisers and US users

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

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userId

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npoProfileOptIn

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fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Help us send Brandon to a better place

Still $7,740 to go. Help us build momentum.