A few weeks ago, we sent an urgent S.O.S. to our supporters asking for help with one of our patients struggling with the burdens of a cancer diagnosis from our local hospital Southern Ocean Medical Center. That call was answered within 24 hours by our friends the Reynolds family who own Reynolds Garden Shop & Landscaping in Manahawkin. Our patient is on a very low fixed income per month and was due to unforeseen circumstances going to be without a place to live starting July 1st. David’s Dream & Believe Cancer Foundation was not going to let this happen and the Reynolds family partnered with us on this new mission. We also worked very closely with the nurse navigators at Southern Ocean Medical Center. The end result of meetings with the nurse navigators, multiple meetings with the Reynolds family usually at 5am, the use of a Reynolds box truck, Reynolds crew for a day and one of our directors assisting us last Saturday was our patient has a safe and comfortable home! This will give her time to focus on healing and allow her time to look for a more long-term living arrangement! We are blessed to work alongside so many amazing families and local businesses dedicated to serving our community. We could not have pulled off this major undertaking without the support from the Reynolds family!
THANK YOU! That is the major theme for this wrap-up of the 2nd Annual Frank V Panzone Jr. Memorial Cruisin for a Cure! Jillian Elsasser (Panzone) got the planning started for our 2nd Annual Frank V Panzone Jr. Memorial Cruisin for a Cure with an email after she had just left our Crabbin for a Cure event at Mud City Crab House on October 23rd. There were countless meetings, phone calls, emails and tireless efforts from so many for the better part of 7 months all to make sure our guests were going to have a good time at this year’s event but ultimately our goal is to always try to raise the highest amount of donations possible so we could support our patients/families battling a cancer diagnosis. The end result from those tireless efforts was a current donation total of $36,000+ and counting (doubling last year’s total) and a subsequent email was sent to SOMC this morning telling them we will be ready to start accepting new patient applications on June 1st. This is only made possible by the overwhelming generosity of our Committee Members, Guests, Cruisers, Sponsors, Auction Donors, Food Vendors, Musicians, Volunteers, owner Danielle Pessolano and staff from Joe Pop’s Shore Bar & Restaurant and our Main Event Sponsor Panzone’s Pizza and the Panzone Family! We must single out a few key people and we need to start with the Panzone family: Joyce Panzone, Kristin Panzone, Jillian Elsasser (Panzone), Jillian’s husband Todd Elsasser and Kristin’s boyfriend John. All of us at David’s Dream and Believe Cancer Foundation are honored to have Kristin and Jillian join the Board of Directors for the Foundation. We would not be able to pull off this amazing event without Kristin and Jillian’s efforts. We will just tell you that they’re both responsible for managing every aspect of this year’s event and Kristin is the creative genius behind our logo, fliers, signs, social media images and new to this year’s event our Cruisin Fashion Collection which will be up on our website in a day or two. They were the ones that purchased ALL the candy for the Panzone’s Cruisin Candy Drive for the past 6 months and anything else remotely attached to this event. A special thanks goes out to Catherine Deely for all of her efforts recruiting new sponsors, soliciting auction donors and setting up the auction at Joe Pop’s. Catherine has worked for the Panzone family since she was 14 and looked up to Frank as a second father her entire life. Her work on this event is a labor of love and tribute to the pay it forward mentality of her hero Frank Panzone! Finally, thank you to our namesake and HERO for this event Frank V Panzone Jr. For those that don’t know, we renamed our Cruisin for a Cure event the Frank V Panzone Jr. Memorial Cruisin for a Cure to honor and pay tribute to a man that spent his life giving to his community. We could go on and on about Chowderfest, Chamber of Commerce President but we like to think about that first Cruisin for a Cure when Frank rode his Harley in terrible weather conditions with his daughter Jillian on the back of his bike while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments of his own. It was important for him to ride in the midst of his own pain to benefit others battling this deadly disease!
Mother Theresa said, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” Frank created a tidal wave and we are honored to pay tribute to him with this event that will continue to serve patients and families in dire need of our assistance. Thank you to everybody that took part in our 2nd Annual Frank V Panzone Jr. Memorial Cruisin for a Cure! See you next year!
