We are excited to announce the formation of the David’s Dream & Believe Cancer Foundation (DDBCF) Advisory Board. The Advisory Board comprised of 20 volunteers dedicated to achieving our Mission of Hope for patients and their families affected by a cancer diagnosis.
In 2017, DDBCF reached an all-time milestone of helping 1,004 families battling a cancer diagnosis with direct financial grants totaling $778,381.91. Beyond the significant financial grants, countless families receive hope, emotional support, and wellness services through our generous corporate and individual donors. These goals could not have been accomplished without the inspiration from our patients and support from our volunteers.
The overall purpose of our new Advisory Board is to bolster support and awareness for DDBCF’s Mission of Hope. We thank each of our Advisory Board Members for committing to serve as Beacons of Hope to our patients and their families. We are honored to introduce our Advisory Board Members and invite you to learn more about each of them by clicking the names below:
The 6th Annual Stafford Run for Hope presented by D Finelli Construction and Lou’s Electric to benefit David’s Dream & Believe Cancer Foundation took place on Saturday June 17th. We had 227 athletes converge on Manahawkin Lake Park early Saturday morning under overcast skies and temps around 80’. Race Director Ross Reynolds created this event 6 years ago. Ross reached out to his friend and former Ship Bottom Lifeguard teammate, David Caldarella a couple years ago to see if the two could partner on this event to benefit local families battling a cancer diagnosis. Ross and his wife Marissa do an amazing job every year with the event and Survival of the Mills which will take place on a new date this year, Sunday September 24, 2017. Thank you, Ross and Marissa.
Thank you to our Presenting Sponsors, Lou’s Electric and D Finelli Construction. Lou Manganiello from Lou’s Electric and Dave Finelli from D Finelli Construction and their teams support our mission of HOPE for families battling a cancer diagnosis throughout the year. The two companies were recognized earlier this year as our newest community partners. Thank you to Lou, Dave and your teams.
A huge thank you to our new friends at Manafirkin Brewing Company for hosting our after-party and award ceremony for the 6th Annual Stafford Run for Hope. If you have not been to Manafirkin yet – do yourself a favor and get there! Thank you to Bagels & Beyond and Fusaro’s Pizza & Pasta for donating all the food for this year’s event.
Thank you to our amazing volunteers. We say it time and time again but we really do have the best volunteers in the world. It takes a tremendous number of volunteers to staff an event like the 6th Annual Stafford Run for Hope. Thank you for giving of your time to “Pay it Forward” for others.
We have amazing volunteers but we would not have an event without our athletes. 227 athletes were ready to swim, bike and/or run to test their own physical endurance Saturday morning while understanding that many in our community are fighting for their lives every single day. We recognize our athletes “fight” and appreciate their support!
We want to thank our youth group Generation Dream families and kids for fundraising and supporting this event. We also had several of our Generation Dream families volunteering along the race route at various water stations. A special thanks to Kim Manzella and Steve Crisalli.
Thank you to our graphic artists and friends at Swing Graphics for all the design and marketing materials for this event. Dawn and Pete are also responsible for our newest event in 2016, Shave the Date which will take place on Friday November 24, 2017. Thank you to our friends and community partners at Jetty for printing this year’s event shirts and a special thanks to Brad Bargiel for always working under stressful time constraints but always delivering for the Dream Team. Thank you to Charlie Kulp from Shore Brake Cyclery for all your support on this event and throughout the year.
Thank you to DQ Events, Surf City Lifeguards, LBI TriClub, Stafford Township Recreation Department and Ocean County Parks & Recreation.
The 6th Annual Stafford Run for HOPE: Tri/Du/Aqua/5K will take place on Saturday June 17th at Manahawkin Lake Park in Manahawkin, NJ! This is the 6th year for the Stafford Tri/Du/Aqua event and the second year that David’s Dream & Believe Cancer Foundation (DDBCF) will be integrally involved in this event in collaboration with our friend Ross Reynolds from Trident Multisport. Ross established Trident Multisport to bring excellent multisport events to southern New Jersey. Giving back to the community is a major focus of their team as well as promoting healthy lifestyles. Trident’s website has this Hawaiian statement on its’ main page:
“Ahuwale ka po’okela I kau hana ia ha’i.” It is through the way you serve others that your greatness will be felt.”
We are extremely excited to announce that our good friends and brand-new community partners, D. Finelli Construction and Lou’s Electric will be the Co-Presenting Sponsors for this year’s event. We cannot thank Dave Finelli, Lou Manganiello and their teams enough for their continued support and commitment to help us serve our families affected by a cancer diagnosis. The Finelli and Manganiello families have been supporters of the Foundation for many years and support other events throughout the year including our Frank V. Panzone Jr. Memorial Cruisin for a Cure and our Island Gala.
We are very excited that our youth group, Generation Dream, will play a major role in this event by fundraising and raising awareness on their own within the community. Please support these amazing kids if they should come knocking at your home or business. We are equally excited and honored to have the support of our DDBCF student group from Southern Regional High School. The students will manage registration, the transition area, water stations on the 5K course and participate in the races.
Please register for the race by clicking the link below:
We held our 4th Annual Island Gala “Hope Under the Stars”on Friday August 5th at the Sea Shell Resort & Beach Club. It was a beautiful night filled with HOPE Under the Stars!
The most critical information about David’s Dream & Believe Cancer Foundation (DDBCF) was conveyed to the crowd by Co-Founder, David Caldarella during the opening ceremony. 634 Families battling cancer have been supported by DDBCF over the past 5.5 years. 312 families in the first 4 years of existence and 322 in the past 1.5 years. A group of friends set out to assist 1-2 patients affected by a cancer diagnosis per year. DDBCF is currently on pace to offer solely financial assistance to a patient/family every 1.46 days in 2016 and if you add in the emotional support and hope – that number rapidly drops to 1 patient/family per day! Truly an incredible milestone for the DDBCF Family and the supporters that make this “Generosity of Spirit” possible throughout the year! THANK YOU!
The highlight of the evening was hearing from Co-Founder of David’s Dream & Believe Cancer Foundation (DDBCF); Tim Hall, Co-Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital; Dr. David Cognetti and 3 of the new Directors Patient of Advocacy for David’s Dream & Believe Cancer Foundation: Dawn Aversa, Susie Buzby and Tina Angers. Tim spoke about the origin of DDBCF and in particular a story of Hope when his friend of 40 years David Caldarella was at his darkest point during his battle with stage IV head and neck cancer and one of his best friends Carmen Malatino created a CD of recorded voicemail’s from family, friends and Dr. David Cognetti encouraging David to Dream & Believe. Dr. Cognetti talked about his personal relationship with his patient David Caldarella and his recollection of the early stages of DDBCF all the way through today. Dawn, Susie and Tina spoke about their personal experiences with cancer as a caregiver in Dawn’s case and survivor’s in Susie and Tina’s and the positive impact DDBCF has had in their lives.
We want to start by thanking our partner and Platinum sponsors for the 4th Annual Island Gala: Informed Mortgage. Everybody in attendance heard David explain the planned giving initiative created by Informed Mortgage in collaboration with Dani Corso from Volatile Media Management and Communications Director for DDBCF. Informed Mortgage donates $25.00 per every closed loan out of their Manahawkin office to DDBCF. This partnership has resulted in planned giving donations of $27,500.00 to DDBCF from the Informed Mortgage team in Manahawkin, NJ. Please give them a call today for any of your mortgage or refi needs especially with all-time low interest rates!
Thank you to the Reynolds Family and Reynolds Garden Shop, Nursery, Floral Market and Landscaping for their continued support of DDBCF and their Gold Sponsorship of the 4th Annual Island Gala. The absolutely breathtaking “VIP” floral arrangements and stunning landscapes surrounding the “Hope Tiki Garden” were simply Amazing!
A special thank you to Tom Hughes, Jaimee Boyle and Brittany Solon from the Sea Shell Resort & Beach Club. This incredible family and their staff continue to care for this event as if it were an event for a family member and we cannot thank them enough.
The artwork and graphics for the event including flyers, posters and invites were all beautifully done by Dawn and Peter from Swing Graphics. We want to thank Typestries and Copyrite for all of our printing needs. Thank you to LeAnna Gerety from LeAnna Theresa Photography and Tony Coon from Darn Swell Media for the photography and video.
Our Board of Directors and volunteers are second to none and this event puts their selfless giving for our families battling cancer on center stage. Their generosity of spirit for the families of DDBCF battling a cancer diagnosis goes far beyond, “Paying it Forward” and for that we love them!
Thank you to our guests and sponsors. You are “Vehicles of Hope” to so many!
Platinum Sponsors:
Informed Mortgage & Bill & Kirsten Jordan
Gold Sponsors:
Reynolds Landscaping, D. Finelli Construction & Southern Ocean Medical Center
Silver Sponsors:
Thomas V. Massa DMD & Associates, Paul Jr. Designs, Ocean First Bank/Ocean First Foundation & Dan & Karen Raugh
Bronze Sponsors:
Panzone’s Pizza, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Lou’s Electric, Anderson Insurance Agency, G. Anderson Agency, Walt McCollum Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, SOMC Foundation, The Van Dyk Group, Lumby Family, Bruce & Beth Fisher, Invisalign, Perry & Barbara Kaplan, Phillip & Christine Kaputa, John & Dee Vanderslice, Brandon Systems, Zelus Consulting Group & Rue Insurance.
Mark your calendars now for the 5th Annual Island Gala on Friday August 4th 2017!
