Seated behind a large desk in an office with teddy bears scattered about, Kathleen Casey reflects on the past year’s efforts to address pediatric cancer.
The organization the Algonquin woman founded, Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation, began as a grass-roots effort to ease the suffering terminally ill children face.
Today, the Cary-based agency, incorporated in April 1993, is rapidly gaining recognition by reaching out to corporations, hospitals, cancer agencies and individuals who are dealing with the disease.
“We want to really make the public so much more aware of pediatric cancer and the funds that are necessary for research,” Casey says.
Although a cure for cancer may not be found in the near future, Casey says her agency is addressing specific needs of pediatric cancer patients throughout Illinois. “Our focus is on the immediate needs of the patients, their families and the hospitals, as well as research projects where the children will directly benefit,” she says.
Sometimes that mission has meant bringing together a father and daughter who had not seen each other in years. Other times the organization has provided a child with a colorful hospital gown or has donated books, furniture, videotapes, toys and equipment to hospitals.
In a little more than two years, Bear Necessities has built up a core group of about 50 volunteer fundraisers and office workers, a handful of corporate sponsors and a long list of northwest suburban residents who have been touched by the group’s mission.
“As people have read about us, they have decided that it is a charity they would like to support,” Casey says. “We’ve gotten a tremendous group of volunteers and a lot of enthusiasm and support from our fundraisers.”
Casey says Bear Necessities has brought in more than $200,000 since its first fundraiser, a dinner-dance in Februray 1994. Those funds have enabled the group to put financial backing behind cancer research projects as well as to provide area hospitals with donations that help make the lives of children with cancer a little more bearable.
“We recently sent 200 books with audio tapes to 11 different hospitals,” Casey says. “They were early learning reading books, and it really was great to be able to do that.”
The group has expanded its fundraising efforts. This year’s events include an arts and crafts show; a golf outing; a shop-and-share program, where a portion of grocery proceeds go to Bear Necessities; a one-mile benefit run; a wine-tasting party; and a holiday wreath sale. The “Thank Heaven for Little Bears” dinner dance in February generated $100,000 alone, according to Casey.
“We’ve become so diverse in the way we are raising funds,” Casey says. “We take a look back at the past year, and I’m so proud of all the people who have helped us.”
Casey’s dedication comes from her own experience. In January 1993, Casey’s 8-year-old son, Barrett “Bear” Krupa, died after a six-year battle with Wilms Tumor, a pediatric cancer that affects the kidneys. At the time of Bear’s death, Kathleen Casey was in the process of forming the organization, which was later incorporated as a non-profit group.
Casey says Bear even helped her make plans for the foundation. “We had started thinking about doing something for children based on Bear’s observance of other children’s needs at his hospital,” Casey says. “He died knowing that I was going to work to get Bear Necessities to be a legal, non-profit organization. We were going to make a substantial difference in these children’s lives.”
Casey says being able to help other children with cancer has been therapeutic for her.
“It helps my grieving process to be able to talk to the parents and grandparents of sick children,” says Casey, who also has a 12-year-old daughter, Courtney Krupa. “Bear is still the drive behind this. The pain is never going to go away, but it really makes me want to work that much harder.”
During an average week, Casey puts in about 60 hours handling administrative duties. She says she tries to acknowledge each donation that comes in, works at setting up meetings with corporations to generate sponsorships and oversees several clerical volunteers who work on mailings or answer phones.
Casey says that in the beginning, getting the word out about pediatric cancer wasn’t easy. But with help from WGN-AM’s Ian Case Punnett, Casey was able to make the public aware of the organization.
“I’ve had the honor to be involved in the organization from the very beginning,” Punnett says.
Patricia Eldridge of Wheaton tuned in to the radio station one day and heard Casey talking about Bear Necessities.
“I called and asked if there was anything I could do to help, and I started coming here once a week,” says Eldridge, who is now one of Casey’s permanent volunteers. “I don’t have children, and I can’t imagine losing a child, but the whole story of what Kathleen is trying to do affected me.”
Bear Necessities has been the recipient of financial support from close to 150 donors since its inception, Casey says, including Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois, the Chicago Bulls and United Airlines. Many of those funds have been used for gifts for children with cancer. For example, a Barrington area cancer patient was granted an acting part in a Chicago theater production.
“I was just talking to Bear Necessities in general, and they had asked me about Megan’s interests,” says her father, Richard O’Connell of Barrington. “I said that she was interested in acting. Out of the blue, the producer of a play called Megan, and it had all been arranged by Bear Necessities. She was absolutely delighted to have that oppoortunity.” Two months later, when she became more gravely ill, Bear Necessities got her 10 to 15 movies she couldn’t get at the video store, which she watched in the last days of her life, her father says.
“When somebody does that,” he says, “it’s a really heartwarming experience.”
Grants, like a $2,000 donation to University of Chicago’s Wyler Children’s Hospital, are given to pediatric neuro-oncology departments to further research and provide up-to-date equipment for patients. “It is an honor to be associated with an organization that functions to fulfill the needs of pediatric cancer patients and their families,” wrote Dr. Stewart Goldman, assistant professor of pediatric hematology-oncology at the University of Chicago Medical Center, in a recent letter.
Casey says that more money and more volunteers are needed if Bear Necessities is to continue to help fund pediatric cancer research. And funds still are not available to a lot of hospitals for research projects because of a lack of governmental support, Casey says.
” means giving a child another day or that they might be able to go on to beat the disease,” she says. “But wouldn’t it be great if we could cure cancer tomorrow?”
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For more information on Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation, call 708-516-4081.
