I could work full time at this IF there were funding available. Lots o' birds with one stone kind of thing. Although I am not an advocate for harming birds...
Now that I am unemployed, I have the needed time to commit that has been lacking to promote and get this on more of a helpful level.
Any ideas or suggestions are welcome!
Read on....
Warren World, Inc.
3555 Queenstown Road
Trussville, AL 35173
www.warrenworld.org
President Barack Obama
First Lady Michelle Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
February 13, 2009
Dear Mr. President and First Lady Obama:
Please accept my apologies for taking your time away from more important matters, but I feel this is an important issue and I am hoping you will agree.
Several years ago, I founded a 501(c)3 organization to raise money for children with cancer and their families that are affected with the enormous costs, decisions and mountains of paperwork involved with trying to save the lives of those children.
The reasons behind my founding of this organization are many, but mostly because of the plight that I personally experienced while aiding my best friend of thirty years (Warren Henderson) in his fight for life and the stigma, roadblocks and money problems when choosing an alternative to chemo and radiation therapies. Insurance will not cover the costs (if you are fortunate enough to have it), the mainstream medical community shuns you for not choosing the "standard" or their personal favorite, FDA approved clinical trial. One such approved trial we encountered was to directly inject a form of mustard gas into Warren's brain on a daily basis. This particular trial was being researched by Duke University and funded by the United States Government.
Warren had been diagnosed with Grade Level Four Glio-Blastoma-Multi-Forme to the frontal right lobe of his brain. He was given two months to live and that was WITH chemo and radiation treatment.
While learning how to administer his alternative medication and care for Warren during his last days, I met many families and their children fighting (literally) for their lives and their right to choose a safer, less toxic treatment. Some parents were threatened with losing custody of their children because their primary health care provider disagreed with their choice of treatment.
I met and grew to love many families who had lost not only their jobs, but their homes, simply and for no other reason than they felt they had to make a choice between quality and quantity of life for their child. Love ruled their decisions, not money or insurance or popularity.
There was one common element to all of the parents; the look of horrifying stress on their faces and the complaint of having to continually fill out the same paperwork again and again just to SEE if they could qualify for assistance with any organization for help; be it government, faith based or private.
It wasn't just the stress of dealing with a child who had been diagnosed as "terminal", it was how to feed, clothe, pay utilities, keep the house, the car, gas to get there for the treatment, their other children...EVERYTHING.
Warren was an artist, musician, author, philanthropist and educator. We decided to start a non-profit IF he recovered to help families such as the ones we grew to love. We also wanted to encourage and support the fine arts in our community. Sort of an enmeshing of the two worlds.
Warren didn't recover, but several friends and I set up Warren World, Inc. to hold an annual music benefit to raise money for one or two families with a child that had been diagnosed as terminal (doesn't that sound awful? No longer your baby girl or boy but now "Terminal").
We have volunteers provide Spoken Word, Music, all labor, printing, promotion, etc to put the event on. Warren World holds the event, takes up donations and then writes a check back to the family or families. They can spend the money where ever they feel is more necessary. We don't ask, no paper work, no providing proof. We don't care if they spend it on ice cream. And we have not yet been let down.
Unfortunately, depending on volunteerism solely usually meant that the bulk of the work fell on my shoulders.
Ironically, last week, my nineteen year old, uninsured, (one year too old for Warren World to help) daughter was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Even though she is an adult, a mother herself and lives with the father of her child, I am painfully aware of how it really feels to be a parent willing to do whatever I can and have to do to make sure my baby girl is healthy and has quality of life.
This awareness has prompted me to rekindle the Warren World mission and purpose.
I have spent the most part of this day, researching and reading up on grants! Whew! Lots of grants out there funded by our government (some to my dismay), but none that I could find for non profits such as Warren World, Inc.
I welcome you to take a look at our website: www.warrenworld.org . Currently it is just myself and a close friend that is a traveling nurse on the opposite coast from me as volunteers, board members and staff.
If there is anything that you can offer up as advice or point us in a direction to better serve the need and supply for what we do, please let me know.
I worked for you by the way. And I have to say that I owe you thanks for that. I have never been more proud of my President and First Lady, I was able to meet and get to know so many wonderful folks, and I was able to thank my ninth grade English teacher (something I had always wanted to do) by canvassing for you.
I keep you in my prayers.