This page is for Pat and the Allabaugh family.

Pat

From Jason and Amber Laird · New Smyrna

Pat,

We didn't ask your permission before we built this. We wanted you to see it finished, not imagine it described.

There's a website at rainbowbridgehope.com. It has Paul's bridges on it. His story. The pictures you've seen and some you haven't. And a way for people anywhere in the country to buy one of his bridges, name it after a pet they loved, and know that the money goes to you and to making sure fewer families stand where you're standing right now.

This isn't charity. Nobody is handing you anything. Paul made beautiful things. People want them. This campaign puts his work in front of the people who've been looking for exactly what he built and never knew he existed. That's the part that breaks us. He was right here. The bridges were right here. The people who would have loved them just didn't know.

Here's what happens with the money.

Every dollar from Paul's bridges goes directly to you. 100%. For whatever you need. No questions. No conditions. Mission gifts come into Amber's Venmo and fund operations and your needs as they arise. We touch no bridge money before you do. The rule never changes: you first.

The goal is $100,000.

I know. But here's why that number isn't crazy. Paul's physical bridges are the anchor. We're also building a memorial wall online where anyone, anywhere, can honor a pet they've lost. A digital memorial for $15 to $25 that lives on the internet with the pet's name, a photo, and a few words from the family. Those don't run out. When Paul's physical bridges are all in people's yards, the memorial wall keeps going. And every page on the site has the number 988 on it. The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Not tucked in a corner. Visible. Because if Paul's story reaches one person who's where he was, and they see that number, and they call it instead of doing what Paul did, then every bridge he ever made carried more weight than wood and paint.

A coalition is forming. Our church. A suicide prevention community walk in Port Orange this September. Local Volusia County businesses (Amber posted to one Facebook group and a wave answered). People with audiences who heard the story and said yes before we finished the sentence.

Pat, you have final authority over everything. If you want a word changed, we change it. If you want a photo removed, it's gone in five minutes. If you look at this and say no, the site comes down and we never mention it again. Your family. Your decision. Your blessing or your no. We will respect whatever you tell us.

But we wanted you to see what's possible before you decided. Paul built bridges between the living and the ones they've lost. This is one more. Between his legacy and the people his story can still reach.

We're your neighbors. This is what neighbors do.

With love,
Jason and Amber Laird
New Smyrna

Browse the Site

Home

The campaign page

Paul's Story

His voice, his bridges

Buy a Bridge

Paul's handcrafted bridges

Gallery

Photos of every bridge

Memorial Wall

Honor a pet forever

Partners

The coalition

If you or someone you know is struggling:

Call or text 988

#SaveOneThenMORE

“No weapon forged against you will prevail.”

Isaiah 54:17

For the makers

When the last bridge sells, the mission doesn't end.

Paul made every bridge by hand. When the last of his finds a home, the inventory is gone — but the grieving pet owners don't stop arriving. The families don't stop needing something to hold.

We're looking for the next maker. A woodworker. A painter. A welder. A potter. A photographer. An illustrator. A sculptor. An artist of any medium who can build something a family keeps on their mantle for twenty years. You don't have to be Paul. Nobody can be. You can be the next chapter — under your own name, your own style, your own hands.

Photographers, illustrators, metalworkers, glass artists, weavers — the medium doesn't matter. The grief doesn't pick a form. Whatever you make, if it can carry someone's love for the animal they lost, this door is yours.

Carry the craft →Email Amber
Call or text988Send a giftSupportJoinGet involved