Last month, at its annual Family Bowl, Jacob’s Cure presented their 2011 Young Leadership Award to 13-year-old Purchase resident Joseph Lovinger. Over the past year, Joseph raised more than $2,000 for the organization through the sale of handmade duct tape wallets.

Last month, at its annual Family Bowl, Jacob’s Cure presented their 2011 Young Leadership Award to 13-year-old Purchase resident Joseph Lovinger. Over the past year, Joseph raised more than $2,000 for the organization through the sale of handmade duct tape wallets.

Joseph has been friends with Jacob Sontag, the namesake of Jacob’s Cure, for more than seven years. “When I met Jacob in first grade at Purchase Elementary, I knew right away there was something special about him,” he said. “As I grew older, I began to appreciate his fighting spirit and perseverance. I wanted to help his cause, but I never knew how I could.”

Jacob is afflicted with a rare genetic brain disease called Canavan disease. Children with Canavan become trapped in their bodies, develop seizures, lose their ability to see and swallow, and if untreated, die in the first decade of life. The research funded by Jacob’s Cure has slowed or halted the progression of the disease in most of the children who received gene therapy and have begun the recommended pharmacological treatments. Jacob will be celebrating his 16th birthday in February.

The wallet project was born almost by accident. One afternoon, Joseph and his friend Dean were looking for something to do when they stumbled across a YouTube video demonstrating how to make origami wallets. After attempting to sell the wallets in school, they realized paper wallets were not marketable, so they decided to try duct tape. The new wallets, available in custom colors and designs, were such a hit with their friends that the two boys went into business together and created their company, JDWallets.

You can purchase the wallets in a variety of colors and designs at Candy Rox in Rye or at jacobscure.org/wallet.php.