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This summer, Believe In Tomorrow has hosted the maximum number of families possible at our Hospital Housing and Respite Housing facilities. Families have met the Blue Angels, taken rides on Coast Guard Cutters, attended Orioles games and pre-season Ravens games, met Maryland's First Lady Yumi Hogan, spent time with therapy dogs, hiked in pristine locales, and swam in lakes and oceans. Most importantly, once all the activities were done our families have strengthened their relationships by reconnecting with each other during the times of their child's medical crisis. All of these opportunities are because of the support we receive from our donor communities.
Many of you are aware that Believe In Tomorrow is in an active building phase. We are half way through constructing our second home in Deep Creek, Maryland. This spacious new construction will allow us to double the number of families we can accommodate at Deep Creek. Plans are being drawn up for the new property in Ocean City close to our existing Children's House By The Sea on 66th Street. The close proximity of those two beach properties will allow even more family interactions with one another. And new on the horizon is the green light to expand our Respite Housing Program to sunny Florida!
As always, we invite you to join the Believe In Tomorrow social media communities on
Facebook
,
Instagram
,
Twitter
and now Snapchat, too! These social channels allow us to share timely information with you, as well as a way for us to hear directly from our families, donors, and volunteers.
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Competitive Schaefer Family Gives Back
The Schaefer family of Lexington, OH was enjoying a great spring in 2015. Their oldest daughter was wrapping up her freshman year of college, and the three children remaining at home had busy schedules with school, soccer and friends. Dave and Michele were enjoying the fun that comes with being an active family.
On Easter morning, their 15-year-old son William, experienced a sharp stomach pain, making a trip to the doctor a priority for Monday. At that appointment, nothing unusual was identified and William was simply under the weather. Unfortunately, the situation did not resolve itself and on Friday, William had a CAT scan on his abdomen which showed a 5-inch mass. The family's busy lifestyle came to an abrupt halt. Their small hospital in Lexington was unable to treat Williams situation, so they headed to Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH approximately 70 miles away.
William stayed at Children's for a week of biopsies and other tests and within two weeks of that Easter Sunday, William was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma, an aggressive form of cancer that would "turned their world upside down".
As the families who have children in our Believe In Tomorrow programs know firsthand, a plan was quickly made by William's medical team and William readied himself for two weeks of chemotherapy beginning in May. Michele primarily stayed in Columbus with William, while her husband Dave kept the remaining household on track back in Lexington. Michele began to feel overwhelmed with the volume of information that she was receiving. Helpful social workers stopped in daily to provide supportive information for families whose child has been diagnosed with cancer. And all Michele kept thinking was, "this is for kids who are really sick...we don't need this." With time, the reality of William's sickness sunk in and Michelle and Dave decided they had been spending too much time as a split family with one parent back in Lexington with the other children and one parent at Children's with William. Michelle dug through the materials that the social workers had left behind, and called Believe In Tomorrow.
Click here to read more.
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2nd Annual Believe In Tomorrow 5k, Bethany Beach, DE - September 30
Believe In Tomorrow is hosting a family-friendly run/walk to benefit our Respite Housing Programs. This year in Bethany Beach, families, friends, and donors will all come together to raise awareness and funds for the unique and impactful programs that we offer to critically ill children and their families. Registration is now open at
BelieveInTomorrow.org/5k
Can't make it to the beach? We offer the opportunity to become a Virtual Runner. By registering as a virtual runner, you can run/walk a 5k on your own time, at your own location and still receive the race t-shirt and even fundraise for Believe In Tomorrow. Several Believe In Tomorrow families and business partners have organized their own local 5k through our Virtual Runner program. We can help get you started. Simply visit
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Donor Highlights
The Children's House at Johns Hopkins and The House at St. Casimir Receive Large Donation
Earlier this summer, Believe In Tomorrow received a wonderful donation, facilitated by one of ourlongstanding Board Members, Dave Pruitt, for a new security system at the Children's House at Johns Hopkins and the House at St. Casimir. To provide a more secure environment for families utilizing this housing, STANLEY Security donated their time to upgrade each system including the installation and project management. Together with the strategic support and product donations by vendor partners ASSA ABLOY, Axis Communications and Bosch Security Systems, who provided locks, cameras and a monitored panic system, Believe In Tomorrow's security needs have been enhanced by the most current technology available.
At The Children's House at Johns Hopkins, Wi-Fi access control locks were installed for the common area entrances and individual suites. Fifteen cameras throughout the building, including indoor and outdoor, were updated.
The Believe In Tomorrow House at St. Casimir, alert buttons were installed in every apartment in the event of a security or medical emergency. All apartments, plus the main entry door, were upgraded an integrated into a lock management software program, and 15 new cameras were installed throughout the building. All 30 cameras in Believe In Tomorrow's hospital housing will be monitored by STANLEY Security.
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Donor Highlights
Mike Williams' Dedication to Safety Yields Donation to
Believe In Tomorrow
Mike Williams, a longtime employee at Colonial Pipeline Company received the highest safety rating within his Company, an honor that comes with the opportunity to donate funds to a charity of his choice. A recent transplant from Alabama to Maryland, Mike wanted to make sure that his funds would help families who were in the middle of a medical crisis, similar to what he and his family had experienced 25 years ago, back in Alabama.
In the early 1990s, Mike's four-year-old son, needed surgery to correct a brain stem abnormality. The surgery was deemed a success. Yet when Mike's son turned 8, a few disturbing symptoms surfaced, something that Mike's wife Christy noticed. Their son needed such a highly specialized surgical procedure that only two surgeons in the United States could be consulted. The family traveled to the closest of the two locations, in Alabama, consulted with the surgeon on Friday, and they were scheduled for surgery Monday.
This sense of urgency, confusion, and panic that comes with having a child in medical crisis has stuck with Mike for over two decades. He remembers the helpless feeling of watching his child go through procedures, trying to be a supportive and good father to his ill son, a present husband to his wife, and never losing sight of his older son who was affected by the medical world that they lived in--all while continuing to provide financially for his family.
Mike's donation to Believe In Tomorrow fulfills his wish to help other families who are in medical crisis. He expressed his appreciation that 95% our monies are directed specifically to programs that will benefit families like his own.
We are glad to tell you that Mike's son is now a father himself and lives in Maryland. His older son is a nurse in Chicago, drawn to helping people as an adult, just as he helped his younger brother during their childhoods.
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Are you our next donor?
The construction phase for the Believe In Tomorrow House at Deep Creek is progressing at a rapid pace. As you can see from the photos below, the new property has soaring ceilings and a gorgeous view of the lake below. The beauty of this property will help our families relax, rest and rejuvenate in a peaceful surrounding.
Can you or your employer help us secure donated items from our list? Please contact us at
[email protected] with any questions or leads. We look forward to opening the doors in
2018, allowing us to double the number of families participating in our respite housing program in the Deep Creek area
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Would you like to Sponsor our 35th Benefit and Auction?
Each year we host a wonderful Benefit and Auction. This is our 35th Benefit and Auction which we have designated as our Coral Anniversary. We welcome your continued support in helping the to keep families together during a child's medical crisis.
The Respite Housing Program allows for families, like the Schaefers, to be together during the stress filled time of helping their critically ill child.
If you or your company are interested in becoming a named sponsor of the Benefit and Auction simply
click here to learn more. Together we can help the most fragile among us when they need it the most.
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Stay Tuned
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6th Annual Scunny-Elvis Golf Classic
Monday, Sept. 11, 2017
The Woodlands Golf Course
$175/player
$700/team of four
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Beach Bash
Monday, Sept. 25, 2017
5-10pm
Seacrets Bar & Grill
We hope you join us for a night of fun, friends and fundraising!
Click here or call
410.723.2824 to buy tickets!
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Believe In Tomorrow Prom Night
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Seacrets Bar and Grill - Ocean City, MD
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35th Annual
Benefit & Auction
Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017
Be sure to save the date, and
get ready to win fantastic
memorabilia and experiences
from our annual auction!
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Get Involved
Do you shop on Amazon? While the growing variety of products is one reason to, did you know that Amazon will donate to Believe In Tomorrow every time you shop through their charitable program? Same products, same prices, and same service!
Choose Believe In Tomorrow Today!
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