Teen Uses EBay To Raise Money For Pancreatic Cancer Research

WESTPORT (AP) — Like many 17-year-old juniors, Jeff Neblett is looking at colleges and preparing to take the SAT next month. But Jeff, who attends Staples High School, also runs a foundation that raises money for pancreatic cancer research.

He founded his nonprofit organization, Consignments for Cancer, in May. Jeff has raised about $7,000.

His goal is to raise $10,000 in the first year, with help from a big fundraiser planned for April. In the meantime, he is seeking unwanted antiques, designer cloths — anything that will sell on eBay, the online auction company.

“I know people in Fairfield County have stuff just sitting around the house that could be making money for my foundation and making money for pancreatic cancer,” Jeff said.

It started about five years ago, when Jeff began selling video games he no longer played on eBay. After he made some money, he began to buy items in bulk, such as watches and laser pointers, in Manhattan and sell them online. He accumulated $5,000.

Then he remembered stories his mother, Valerie, told him about his father, Robert, who died of pancreatic cancer when Jeff was 3.

“I heard how bad his last year was and decided to use the money to start a foundation,” he said.

Pancreatic cancer kills fewer people yearly than lung, colon, and breast cancer, but a person lives an average of six months after diagnosis. The National Cancer Institute estimates that 31,860 people were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year, and 31,270 died.

Understanding those numbers and the pain his father’s death caused his mother, Jeff requested a form from the Internal Revenue Service that would allow him to establish a nonprofit organization. Weeks later, he got an inch-thick pile of paperwork in the mail.

“It took me two weeks,” he said. “Every day, I’d do a little more.”

The first items he sold online through the foundation were clothes his mother no longer wanted. He then sought donations from friends. A family friend donated boxing gloves signed by Sylvester Stallone, which fetched $2,000 online.

In September, Jeff began renting space at Debbie’s Stamford Antiques Center, which houses items from about 150 dealers. He said he made $2,500 in the first month, after paying rental costs.

In April, he expects to hold the first annual fundraiser. This year, a professional dance instructor will give lessons to 35 couples at the home of a family friend in Westport, for $175 per couple.

Jeff is looking into potential beneficiaries of his foundation, and is leaning toward the pancreatic cancer research program at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md. He plans to continue the foundation during and after college to honor his father’s memory.

“I didn’t really know my father,” he said, “and I think about what we could’ve done, what it would have been like.”