September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and Team Summer has launched its sixth annual Team Summer Challenge! YAY!! Supporters will be raising money for Team Summer throughout the month. We have a big goal – $35,000!! And this year we’ve added an exciting surprise! Team Summer is giving away an Edison e-bike! Built in Atlanta by the remarkable Ryan Hersh (pictured below), the Edison e-bike is an incredible machine! It can go up to 24mph, traveling 40 miles on hills and 70 miles on flat land…all on one battery charge!
So who is going to win it? Maybe you! For every $50 you donate to Team Summer in September, you get one chance to win. If you donate $100, you get two chances. If you donate $600, you’re funding an entire Team Summer gift for a kid with cancer AND getting 12 chances to be the one riding off on an Edison e-Bike!
Your generosity will go directly toward funding gifts like the one in this story:
Back in January, Kasyn was living a typical 6th-grade life – going to school, playing baseball, and hanging out with his friends. Kasyn had asthma, so his family always had a close eye on him. One day at school, he was having trouble breathing. The school nurse listened to his lungs and decided to send him home. Kasyn’s parents were worried it could be pneumonia and made an appointment to see his pediatrician the next day. But they never made it. Kasyn’s breathing got so bad that night they ended up in the ER. It was there they learned this wasn’t about Kasyn’s asthma. It was much worse. The reason he couldn’t breathe was because a large tumor was crushing his trachea, and his lungs were filled with fluid. The cause? It was cancer: leukemia.
Since then, this kid has had a rough time. Because his breathing had dropped to such dangerous levels, Kasyn had to endure emergency surgery without being fully sedated and without painkillers, because either one could have slowed down his breathing even more. And since then, he’s been facing weekly chemotherapy treatments, which have left him feeling nauseated and very tired. This once extremely social 11-year-old is now spending most of his days in the hospital.
Team Summer’s mission is to bring kids with cancer together for mutual help and support, because – let’s face it – only another kid with cancer can really understand what it’s like to be a kid with cancer. Not one, not two, but THREE Team Summer kids reached out to nominate Kasyn to become a Team Summer kid, too. How cool is that??! They are five-year-old Grayson with kidney cancer, four-year-old Kallie with leukemia, and 17-year-old Cash with Ewing’s sarcoma.
They all live in the same community in Texas, right down the road from one another. And they knew exactly how Kasyn was feeling — scared and alone. So they planned a special surprise for him!
When they all got on a Zoom call together, Kasyn was all smiles! These were familiar faces — kids who understood what he was going through.
Everyone was excited to let Kasyn know there was a surprise from them hidden in his house! When his parents brought it out, Kasyn tore into the box and immediately lit up! It was a Meta Quest virtual reality gaming system! Something he had been wanting!
The game lets you connect online with other kids, something this super social guy had been missing. Plus, it let’s you dive into your very own fantasy world, so it’s perfect for escaping reality — something pretty much every kid with cancer wants!
Great job Grayson, Kallie and Cash! Kasyn’s mom told us as soon as the Zoom call ended, Kasyn wasted no time jumping into a game.
We are so proud of our kids and all the good they are doing! All Team Summer gifts are funded through tax-deductible donations* from generous people like you. And don’t forget, when you donate in September, you might even win an Edison e-bike! Can you help us help these kids?
*Team Summer, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All contributions are tax deductible to the full extent of the law.
