2012
was an incredibly successful year for the Long Island-based Sarah Grace
Foundation For Children With Cancer, Inc., which held numerous events to help children
with cancer and their families. The Foundation honors the memory of Sarah Grace
Weippert, who valiantly fought acute lymphoblastic leukemia, but unfortunately
lost her battle with the aggressive disease in November 2002.
In
2003, Hicksville residents Matt and Marissa Weippert formed The Sarah Grace
Foundation and for the last ten years along with their son James and The Sarah
Grace Foundation's Board of Directors and volunteers, have been working to help
children and their families faced with the challenges and hardships brought
upon by childhood cancer.
The Foundation’s mission is to provide child
cancer sufferers with some laughs, smiles or momentary escapes from the reality
of daily cancer treatments.
The
work that Matt and Marissa are doing with the Sarah Grace Foundation provides a
positive outlet for many families during a difficult time. At
Thanksgiving, supermarket giftcards were distributed to families referred by
the Pediatric Oncology Social Workers at Cohen Children’s Medical Center of NY
and Winthrop University Hospital, among others.
“The
goal of our gift card program is to provide assistance to families enduring
extreme financial hardships and help ease their burden of providing a holiday
meal to their family,” said Matt Weippert. “Day to day life is difficult
enough for most of these families; the least we can do is to help provide a
holiday meal.”
In
December, the Foundation was fortunate to receive toy donations from the
Hicksville Middle School Student Council. Our friends at the law firm of Ruskin
Moscou Faltischek, P.C. once again assisted the Foundation with a toy drive and
donations to help provide for its Holiday programs. Members of the
community also reached out during the holidays by donating gifts for the children.
Westy Self Storage also provided the Foundation use of its Hicksville facility
for event preparations; the staff graciously allowed them to use their facility
not just for wrapping holiday party gifts, but also for packaging over 580
Halloween trick or treat bags earlier in the year. Additionally, Andy and
the staff of the UPS store in Delco Plaza assisted with the distribution of
gift packages at Christmas and throughout the year.
“Our
foundation, along with the children and families we serve, is forever indebted
to the generosity of these organizations and all of those involved,” stated
Marissa Weippert. “Coordinating a toy drive may seem like an easy task,
but it is not. Many hours go into planning, organizing and implementing
its success.”
On
December 9, the Foundation was extremely proud to host its 10th Annual Holiday
Party for children with cancer and their families at Cohen Children’s Medical
Center in New Hyde Park. This year’s party included music and
entertainment, once again provided by Barattini Productions as well as clowns,
face painting, and a visit from Santa. All of the children had a great
time and each received gifts prior to leaving. Prior to visiting the
party, Santa visited the children who were in-patient and could not attend the
party; Santa personally gave each child a gift along with Christmas wishes.
Additionally, refreshments were provided by Phil and Sons Pizza in Plainview,
Cakes a la Moda and Primocakes.com.
Throughout
the past year the Foundation has continued it’s sponsorship of The Bead
Program, which allows each child to tell their own unique story about their
journey utilizing various colored, glass beads, each representing a particular
area of treatment. Additionally the Foundation remains the NY Metropolitan
sponsor of Gabe’s Chemo Duck.
According
to Matt Weipert, The Foundation also sponsors The Escape Hatch™, which allows
the children to escape to a different world, away from the pain and negative
experience they are going through, as well as financial aid, funeral assistance
and more, on a referral basis. In 2012, The Sarah Grace Foundation was
the “Courage Sponsor” for the first annual Pediatric Cancer Survivors Day
hosted at Eisenhower Park by Cohen Children’s Medical Center.
“The
Sarah Grace Foundation, along with all of its programs, helps to ease the
burden these families endure throughout their illnesses. The Foundation
has become an essential resource that has assisted so many families with basic
needs and a distraction from their treatments,” stated Matt Weippert, adding,
"We are grateful to our volunteers and supporters for continuing to honor
Sarah’s memory and providing the fuel that keeps our mission going.”
In
order to continue providing families with support and to finance ongoing
programs the Foundation relies heavily on donations and fundraising events
throughout the year. In 2012 the Foundation benefited from events such as
its 9th Annual Night of Laughter, 2nd Annual Kings Park/Commack Alumni Hockey
Game, 2nd annual theatrical fundraiser Unrehearsed: A Night of Improv, a Steppin-N-Style
Dance-A-Thon, and the 2nd Annual Holiday Extravaganza fundraising raffle that
provided daily winners through the month of November.
The Sarah Grace
Foundation is gearing up for their initial 2013 events, which include the 10th
Annual Night of Laughter (Friday, April 12 at The Milleridge Cottage) and plans
to hold its 5th Annual Hugs for Sarah Memorial Blood Drive on Saturday, March
30 at the William P. Bennett Community Center in Hicksville.
2013
is a very important year for The Sarah Grace Foundation as it marks the 10th
anniversary of supporting children with cancer and their families. The
Foundation has started this commemorative year by launching a new website at www.thesarahgracefoundation.org.
“This
anniversary is a milestone in that it is difficult to believe we have been
doing this for ten years, but even more difficult to realize that our angel,
Sarah, has been gone from us that long,” said Matt Weippert. “This
anniversary is not a celebration but a commemoration of a young life cut too
short; and a recognition of all the positive things being done in Sarah’s
memory.”
For
more information on The Sarah Grace Foundation For Children With Cancer, Inc., call
(516) 433-9745 or visit the foundation’s website at www.TheSarahGraceFoundation.org.
Donations or requests for information may be sent to the foundation at:
217 Plainview Road, Hicksville, NY 11801.
Sarah Grace Foundation Continues Spreading Hope
Nancy Barbach, Matt Weippert, Marissa Weippert and James Weippert at the Sarah Grace Foundation For Children With Cancer's 2012 Holiday Party.
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Michael Ganci (Editor) May 20, 2013 at 12:37 am
We just posted. I was at the scene. Hope this helps! MG…Read More http://merrick.patch.com/groups/breaking-news/p/woman-struck-by-train-at-merrick-lirr-station
Zach T May 17, 2013 at 07:20 pm
The School board is a bunch of morons if they want to remove this designation! There were 0 problems…Read More like this when Malucci was in office, this new superintendent is a waste of space, money, and cares more about his own paycheck then our kids! Between school security, and now this, I motion that we get rid of that skell!
Dr. Kim Lurie May 16, 2013 at 12:54 pm
Bless you, Anthony. And though I know ultimately the "Judge" will have to be held…Read More accountable by a higher authority...those of us who do this work, have not forgotten nor will we allow the system to forget what her role in this travesity was.
Anthony Merlo May 16, 2013 at 10:24 am
Thank you for this wonderful article on a good man pushed to the brink. I appriciate the fact this…Read More came form the heart and did not hold back. As Sacristan at Cure of Ars, I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Rich (as I called him) for some time. He was a man of faith and a pleasure to see. Always with a smile and kind word, you would never know what was going on the way he acted. This was a wonderful and insightful article. It is heartbreaking to think that where there was once love between 2 people, things got to the point where one persons life was destroyed by those who could and did for no apparent reason other than having the ability to do so. God will have mercy on Dr. Rich and the ex-wife and "Judge" should pray for the same given their actions.