CEDAR FALLS -- For the past two to three years, Brayden Wolf has been squirreling away his Christmas and birthday money, collecting cans and doing extra chores to save up for a four-wheeler.

But when the 7-year-old heard last month that the Dan Gable International Wrestling Institute and Museum had been damaged by floodwaters, he decided to donate 50 to the organization's recovery efforts.

"I like Dan Gable," said Brayden, a youth wrestler who owns two instructional videos narrated by the Olympic gold medalist. "I heard my dad reading about the flood ï½ and I decided to do it."

Although several donors have stepped up following the disaster, which resulted in 400,000 to 500,000 in damage to the Waterloo facility, museum staff say that Brayden's donation is especially touching. The youngster's decision to give was his and his alone, said Kyle Klingman, Dan Gable associate director.

"He had never been to the musuem when he decided to donate," Klingman said. "But already at a young age he associated himself with the wrestling community, and that really motivates us to keep going and keep making this work."

Brayden started wrestling this fall with the Dike-New Hartford club and has already learned the sport's three styles: Greco-Roman, freestyle and folkstyle. In the past year he's competed in roughly 35 tournaments, winning 12, including a first-place finish at the Iowa Kids AAU Super Pee Wee State Folkstyle Championship in March.

The boy has two fingers and a thumb on one hand and three fingers and a thumb on the other, but has never let the birth defect slow him down, said Brayden's father, Chad Wolf.

"He's done everything that kids his age would want to do and probably more," he said. "We support him."

Wolf, a teacher at Peet Junior High School, said he was pleasantly surprised when his son asked to donate to the Dan Gable museum.

"It was all him," he said, affectionately patting Brayden's back. "We're awful proud of him."

Contact Mary Stegmeir at (319) 291-1482 or mary.stegmeir@wcfcourier.com.