Dallas-based TeamConnor Childhood Cancer Foundation announced that it donated $15,000 to Children’s Health Dallas and $15,000 to Cook Children’s in Fort Worth to fund the Art Box Program. TeamConnor provides resources for hospitals to create personalized boxes of materials, including paints, canvases, crayons, markers, coloring books, digital tablets, and other items for kids to be creative while going through life-saving stem cell transplants in the hospital. These treatments typically result in extended and isolated hospital stays often lasting up to 90 days. During the treatment, a child often has very limited visitation. The Art Box Program drastically improves a patient’s overall experience.
In addition to these gifts, TeamConnor announced it donated an additional $257,000 to hospitals in Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco, in support of cutting-edge research for childhood cancers.
“We are committed to funding research for childhood cancers at some of the best research centers in the country,” said Joy Cruse, founder of Dallas-based TeamConnor Childhood Cancer Foundation. “Despite being one of the leading causes of death among children, childhood cancer receives very little government funding for research. Therefore, if better treatment protocols and cures are to be found, it will take significant private and corporate support to fund the research.”
*Pictured above: Elliot Stieglitz, MD, Assistant Professor, Pediatric Hematology & Oncology, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and Kathryn Copple, Executive Director of TeamConnor Childhood Cancer Foundation
ABOUT TEAMCONNOR CHILDHOOD CANCER FOUNDATION
Every year, more than 12,500 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer in the United States. Childhood cancer is the number one disease killer of children, yet the budget of the National Cancer Institute allocates less than four percent of its funds to pediatric cancer research. TeamConnor Childhood Cancer Foundation is dedicated to raising awareness and funding research and treatment programs to find cures for all childhood cancers. Find out more on the organization’s website.
