Thank You to: Northwestern Mutual
Thank you to the group of volunteers from the Richmond office of Northwestern Mutual. They spent a Saturday doing yard work for two of our hero families. One family has had their daughter in the ICU for nearly two months and the other family has a five-month old baby who has been battling cancer since she was three weeks old. With their children in treatment, yardwork is not a priority. That's where Connor's Heroes comes in. We offer the parents help so they don't have to ask. Seeing the smiles on these volunteers shows how worthwhile it is to help the families who are facing the battle against childhood cancer.
If your company is looking for a service project, contact Erin at (804) 897-1272.
A birthday party became a giving party
Many of you met Savanna at this year's Heroes Art Ball. She's come a long way since her diagnosis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). It was with great joy that she celebrated her 10th birthday. Instead of asking for presents for herself, she asked for items to put in our Heroes Bags and Backpacks. I asked Savanna what she enjoyed most in her Heroes Bag when she started treatment. She said she loved the book Tom Sawyer. I can see how beautiful passages like the following would take a child away from the boredom of the hospital and into Tom's carefree world:
You can turn your next birthday party into a giving party just like Savanna did. Our website has a wishlist of items we need for our Heroes Bags and Backpacks. Download the list or donate $10 to Connor's Heroes using our secure donation site.
Thank Notes for Connor’s Heroes!
How nice to go to our post office box and find two handwritten notes. The Primrose School in Midlothian mailed us a check for $1000 raised from their Spring Fling. They gave in honor of their student, Lauren. Lauren was treated in the bone marrow transplant unit. Now, she is looking forward to starting kindergarten in the fall. The second note was totally unexpected. It was from a former patient, Tyler. He thanked us for his birthday card. You may not have known that Connor's Heroes mails birthday cards to our hero patients - past and present. Why not give $25 so we can buy cards and postage for the birthdays next month?
Young Professionals - Join us!
You can work with our hero patients and meet other young professionals who value doing good in the communty. Sign up to get emails periodically throughout the year about our socials and volunteer opportunities. You can do crafts with our Hero kids at a craft brewery for our next Sunday Funday. Or gather up your friends to come to the Heroes Art Ball next May. You will be a part of the community of heroes who stand up for cancer's youngest patients - our Hero kids.
More than 40,000 children undergo cancer treatment each year in the United States. In Richmond, an average of 100 families look to Connor's Heroes for support when their children are in treatment. We've helped more than 1,000 families since we started in 2006.
How one party lead to thousands of dollars for our heroes
I want to give a special thanks to a group of friends I know as "Team Richmond." I've known many of them since the early 90s when we were in law school. Some of them were the heroes I leaned on during Connor's treatment right after Emily's birth. For the past four years, they've thrown awesome house parties. The cover charge is a donation to Connor's Heroes. How much have they donated to Connor's Heroes these four years? Well over $15,000! That was enough to help 50 families who looked to CHF for support. Wow!
Would you like to turn your parties into a giving party to help our hero families? You can too.
Sunday Funday for our Families
This past Sunday was our first "Sunday Funday" hosted by our volunteer group of young professionals. This is a new program for us thanks to contributions from you, our donors. Every month we will host a heroes art session just for fun! For our first Sunday Funday, our board member Celia, along with Nora and the other volunteers, set up stations for the kids. They tie-dyed pillow cases. Made patriotic streamers. Painted pictures. Every child went home with an armful of Fourth of July fun. While the kids were doing crafts, the parents got to know each other better. They talked about the places they lived, traveled and plans for the summer. Hearing them chat, you'd have no idea that cancer was a part of their children's lives.
Our kids love being together and our parents appreciate the chance to share and lean on one another. Thank you to Ashland's Center Of The Universe Brewery for hosting our first event. If you are a young professional, you can join our group and help with our next Sunday Funday.
Meet the young children helped by Connor’s Heroes
I just sent our latest email about the families and volunteers of Connor's Heroes. It's been a great summer. Find out why by joining our email list. September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. I'd love to introduce you to the children in Central Virginia who are battling cancer. You'll read about their families and community of heroes who are supporting them.
Support Ashley as she runs for Connor’s Heroes in VA & OR
Our newest board member, Ashley Menninger, is running for our heroes! She's running not one, but two races. You can join her without leaving your chair. The first race is here in Richmond on July 4th. You can register to run the Brandermill 7.4K with Ashley or make a donation to Connor's Heroes via the race website: www.brandermillrace.com. Then, she's off to Oregon for a 200 mile, 30 hour relay (yeah, I'm tired just typing that!). Ashley set up a personal fund raising page so you can cheer her on with your donation. $5, $10 will give her the strength to run for our heroes. You can make your donation at our secure online giving site. Click on her donate button to make your contribution and learn why Ashley is inspired to run for our heroes in treatment in Richmond.
New website makes it easy for you to be a Hero!
Now's the time to be a hero to our families by volunteering. Connor's Heroes has opportunities for students, groups, businesses and one-day service projects. Get all the details at our *new* and *improved* webpage. You'll want to bookmark this page and share it with others.
RVA doctor lead development of treatments for childhood cancer
When the American Thyroid Association wanted to develop guidelines to better treat thyroid cancer in children, they looked to a doctor in Richmond. Gary Francis, M.D., Ph.D., with VCU Massey Cancer Center and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, lead international experts in developing treatment protocols that were better suited for the youngest cancer patients – our heroes. “The course of treatment recommended for an adult may not be appropriate for a child with the same symptoms,” says Francis, member of the Developmental Therapeutics research program at Massey, endocrinologist at Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU and professor and chief in the Pediatrics Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the VCU School of Medicine.
At Connor’s Heroes, we are excited about research that is specifically for childhood cancer. It’s why we have The Connor’s Heroes Pediatric Cancer Research Fund. It is the only fund at VCU Massey Cancer Center focused on childhood cancer. Two of our heroes, Vincent and Olivia, have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Pictured is Olivia from 2011. Olivia was one of our heroes celebrated at the Heroes Art Ball that year.