Cabot community funds trip to Rio for Weeks' family

Alexis Weeks celebrates during the women's pole vault final at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, Sunday, July 10, 2016, in Eugene Ore. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Alexis Weeks celebrates during the women's pole vault final at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, Sunday, July 10, 2016, in Eugene Ore. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

— The Cabot community has raised $15,706 in funding to send the family of hometown hero Lexi Weeks to Rio to watch her compete in the Summer Olympics next month.

The fundraiser, hosted on YouCaring.com, surpassed its $15,000 goal on Thursday after generating 161 donations over a two-week period in support for Weeks, an NCAA indoor and outdoor champion in the pole vault as a freshman for Arkansas. The funding will allow Weeks’ family - which includes twin sister Tori, also a Razorback pole vaulter - to travel to Brazil.

"It is so overwhelming for me and my family," Weeks said. "I am going to cry thinking about it because I am just so thankful that my community has come behind me and supported me and my family. It's just incredible and overwhelming that they have been so supportive and encouraging. It's so crazy to have that support from them."

The initiative was organized by Dwight Daugherty, Weeks’ AP physics and chemistry teacher at Cabot High School. The fundraiser page was shared nearly 2,000 times on Facebook, spreading the word and helping it reach its goal quickly.

Most of the donations came from individuals or families, but several local companies made four-figure gifts to the cause. Donations ranged from $10 to $2,000, with several gifts for unspecified amounts. Daugherty wrote on July 20 that the community still has additional fundraising efforts going on to raise funding for the trip. The NCAA prohibits the family from accepting more than the cost of the trip’s expenses.

Weeks qualified for the Summer Olympics by placing third in the pole vault at the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials in Oregon in mid-July. The only athletes she finished behind were 2012 gold medalist Jenn Suhr and Sandi Morris, a former Arkansas pole vaulter who won the U.S. indoor championship earlier this year. Weeks’ career-best performances at the trials came after earning All-American honors and being named the NCAA South Central Region Field Athlete of the Year for a prodigious freshman year.

The trip to Brazil next month will be Weeks’ first outside the U.S.

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