Today Casey Cares lost another beautiful child...

Posted: Oct 15, 2012 by Debi Katzenberger

Today Casey Cares lost another beautiful child to a critical illness that encompassed most of his, and his family's, life.  I grew close to his mom through my monthly PJ parties at the Ronald McDonald House. Although he could not participate, his mom, was always there in his place, always making sure to take a little piece of the party to him in the hospital, where he fought for his life for over 6 months.  Many people ask me how I can do this, after the loss of a child in my own family? How can I keep putting myself and my heart out there for these families?...My reply..."How can I not?"

 

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Martin Kim Photography

Posted: Oct 05, 2012 by Martin Kim

Hello everyone! This past weekend I was contacted by a friend at the last minute to see if I could contribute by documenting a charity event.  This charity is an annual event held at http://www.ramsheadlive.com/ every year by the http://www.caseycaresfoundation.org/index.cfm.  Casey Cares Foundation supports children who are unfortunate having the luxuries of playing outside, sleep overs, recreational activities, etc. due to children fighting cancer, sickle cell disease, cystic fibrosis and other life-threatening illnesses.
 
This charity was very personal for me to support because of the fact that I had a twin brother named Andrew, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth due to both of us coming into this world at 7 months, I myself weighed at 2.5lbs and he weighed in at 8lbs prematurely. We ended up in the incubator for additional months.  It’s probably one of the most scariest feeling in the world of your child being in danger from birth as a parent.  As we grew older, his condition became worse as I started to develop motor skills by walking, talking, and aware of my surroundings.  My parents worked from 6am-10pm, 7 days a week running a carry-out restaurant in some of the most dangerous areas of the suburbs in Baltimore, MD trying to make the “American Dream”.  Times were really rough at that time, I wasn’t too sure when I was going to see my parents everyday during school, let alone coming home without getting robbed or worse.
 
It was so stressful that my parents couldn’t have the time to have personal care for my brother.  Families who have an ill child would require one parent to leave their job to focus on their special child full time, while the other parent would pick up another job or two.  If there’s no special support of any kind, then everyday starts to become overwhelming with medical, emotional, and financial stress. Luckily, my parents found a very nice and sincere foster family who adored my brother as their own child, I bless their hearts.  Supportive people like them makes everyday possible to help my parents get through the tough and emotional times giving hope that their child is still within our family although we couldn’t be around 24/7 days a week.
 
Sadly, Andrew passed away 6 days before our 23rd birthday February 24, in 2007.  I’ve witnessed and experienced what some of these children and families  goes through everyday. Sponsors and organizations like Casey Cares Foundation, Oxford Research Group, and Capitol Securities helps families with their children by supporting, funding, and and holding charity events such as the 10th Annual Rock & Roll Bash letting families know they’re not alone and there’s plenty of options to choose from which is important because there are those who are unfortunate to even have the luxury to choose or having options.
 
This event was by far one of the best charities I’ve been too and looking forward to next years event.  It was an amazing night of classic rock entertainment featuring tribute bands  performing classic rock music from the 70’s and 80’s. Some of the key peformers were AC/DC tribute band—High Voltage, Bon Jovi tribute band-Bad Medicine, KISS tribute band-Cold Gin, and 80s rock tribute band-Blatant 80s.  All the bands did an excellent job covering songs through multiple sets, people were having a good time partying, drinking, and getting emotional. Auctions were pretty exciting going through some awesome bidding wars such as autographed Torrey Smith’s jersey that was sold for $1,500! and even some of the other winners would actually donate more than the winning bid just for the cause which is amazing thing to do.
 
I would also like to thank Jen Seidel at http://www.jenseidel.com/Flash/ who’s a very talented body painter/make up artist in the area of Baltimore who’s given me this opportunity for supporting Casey Cares Foundation charity event.

 

Please learn more about this very talented and generous photographer, including pictures of the night http://martinkimphotos.com/casey-cares-foundations-10th-annual-rock-roll-bash-personal-post/  

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Pajamas have no language barriers...

Posted: Jul 19, 2012 by Debi Katzenberger

Pajamas have no language barriers. I always knew it, but it wasn’t until a recent hospital party that my suspicions were confirmed.

I have the pleasure of meeting so many families of all cultures in my travels as the official Kami’s Jammies ambassador.  I love chatting with them, learning about their lives and listening to stories of their struggles in dealing with their child’s illness.  Childhood illness has no cultural barriers, it does not discriminate and treats all children of the world in an equally unfair way.

I have met a family from Kuwait, 2 from Saudi Arabia, many from South America and recently a local family who had adopted 2 children from Russia.  This was a particularly touching family because after the long process of adopting from a foreign country and finally being able to make the trip to Russia to pick up their new family, they discovered that their daughter had a life threatening illness.  They were given the option of backing out.  It was never an option for this family, who had already thought of these children as their own and certainly would not have turned their back on their own children.  They brought them to the United States and immediately got her the treatment she needed.  She was about 2 weeks into treatment when I met them.

As I watched the father and daughter communicate verbally, I realized that they could only do so with the help of a computerized translation device. He spoke no Russian and, she, no English.  But when we brought out the boxes of pajamas for the patients to choose from, no translation was needed. This child’s face lit up with a smile that was a mile wide.  She totally understood what was happening and gave me a huge hug of gratitude, only to be followed by another as she was told she could also choose a pair for her brother.   

 

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