We wanted to take some time to thank Cal’s All-Star Angels Foundation.  In April of 2008, our 2 year old daughter, Brooke, was diagnosed with Leukemia.  Even with great insurance and medical care, there are still financial and emotional costs that bring challenges to our family. 

Cal’s has intervened several times to help.  Over the past several months, Cal’s has encouraged our family with financial support, gifts that have allowed us to spend time as a family and events that have allowed us to share our daughters story and be part of a community committed to fighting childhood cancer.

One of the biggest challenges to any cancer family is the sudden rise in medical related costs.  These costs include the obvious medical expenses themselves as well as expenses for repeated trips to the hospital and the lodging and meal costs that accompany those trips.  This puts a strain on a families’ ability to pay even the normal bills.  Cal’s Foundation generously paid our car insurance bill for six months, taking an enormous pressure off of our finances.

Treating childhood cancer also puts a tremendous strain on family dynamics.  With two kids, it is hard for the child without cancer to feel included.  Even the closest family can feel fractured and disjointed when appointments and hospital stays are a routine part of life.  Cal’s Foundation provided a great gift for us in the form of a Nintendo Wii gaming system.  The Wii gives us an opportunity to get together as a family daily, be active and laugh with each other.  Even on days when our daughter has to be isolated, we can still have fun playing the Wii as a family.

Finally, Cal’s Foundation has been a great encouragement to us through events that they organize or help sponsor.  During a particularly tough time, we were able to participate in the first Cal’s All-Star Angel Foundation 5K.  The opportunity to run in the 5K, and for the kids to run in their own races, even one honoring Brooke, gave us a chance to fight back against the cancer that has attacked our family.  Being able to join and be honored by Cal’s with other cancer families that day was a great encouragement to all of us.  This is just an example of the events in which Cal’s has been a part of that we were able to participate in.

Throughout this journey we have been on fighting cancer, we can look back and see several times where Cal’s All-Star Angel Foundation has stepped in to walk alongside us providing much support and encouragement when we needed it the most.  Thank you Cal’s!

Gratefully,
Rick, Tanya, Jacob and Brooke Roberts