Issue link: https://fredparent.uberflip.com/i/564986
www.FredParent.NET • 15 Pediatric Cancer Resources Want to help? Here's how: FAIRY GODMOTHER PROJECT Focus: Childhood cancers Need: Donations and volunteers to accomplish emotional and financial support through many programs GRACE OUGHTON FOUNDATION Focus: Childhood cancers Need: Donations and volunteers to offer physical, mon- etary and medical resource support OWEN LEA FOUNDATION Focus: Neuroblastoma Need: Donations and volunteers to continue to support families who have to travel for treatment STRONG FOR DOM Focus: Clinical trials at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Need: Financial dona- tions to fund trials testing new, less toxic medications for children with cancer STILL BRAVE Focus: Childhood cancers Need: Financial donations and volun- teers to provide financial, emotional and physical support CONNOR'S HEROES Focus: Childhood Cancers Need: Volunteers and funding to support research, to help families to juggle time and to support children as they face invasive procedures. Reinforcements from Afar Even organizations outside Fredericksburg extend their reach into our area. According to its website, CONNOR'S HEROES, a Richmond, Virginia-based organization, has a comprehensive mission to "provide support and care to ease the burdens brought on by extended hospital stays, to help families connect with others who share a similar journey, to raise funds for cancer research and to provide bereavement support." Families in the Fredericksburg and Caroline areas have been recipients of their generosity, especially when traveling to Richmond for treatments. In Burke, Virginia, STILL BRAVE actively assists families outside its immediate vicinity. Director Tom Mit chell, better known as Tattoo Tom, emphasizes Still Brave's "renegade" mission to support families in non-medical ways. When his daughter, Shayla, was battling cancer, he says, "I asked myself why didn't someone do something, and then I real- ized I was someone." Still Brave is committed to helping children with cancer and their families, "so that while they are fighting the toughest war of their lives, we will fight their lesser battles so they don't have to." Each organization has a presence online and provides further links and resources where families may find assis- tance. In essence, each organization has had intimate deal- ings with cancer, and performing life-affirming acts in the face of the disease forms their own children's legacies. Margaret Beltran captures it here, "Losing a child to can- cer didn't make sense. I needed to do something to keep Dom's memory alive and to have something positive come of all of it. My hope is that we make him proud through our efforts." A.E. Bayne is a writer, visual artist, and educator who lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She has been a frequent contributor to Front Porch Magazine and is an editor at the Fredericksburg Literary Review. Hearts of GOLD continued from pg 13 The qualities shared by each of these organizations is their dedication to honoring the memory of their own children's experiences, to supporting families facing the ravages of childhood cancer and to assure them they are never alone. for treatment