2010 Year in Review

 

God poured out His blessings to Phil's Friends in 2010.  We started the year by getting settled into our office space at 1350 W. Lake Street in Roselle, IL.  Through the gifts of various financial grants, we were able to hire Carol as our Director of Care Packaging.  Carol serves our patients by doing whatever needs to be done to ensure that care packages requests are fulfilled in a timely manner. We were also able to hire, Michelle as our Administrative Assistant.  Michelle keeps our office running smoothly and is the friendly voice who takes the majority of our calls.  Both of these ladies go beyond the call of duty to ensure that  our day-to-day operations lift up our patients and give glory to God.

We hosted three major fundraising events this year.  WalkFest was held in May at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Schaumburg.  Matthew West's performance capped off a fun-filled day which featured concerts from many other Christian artists, great food and the fellowship of our patients and their families.

Our 1st Golf Outing was held in August at the Bloomingdale Golf Club.  The sixty golfers who came out may have gotten a little soggy, but they didn't let the rain spoil their fun.

On November 19, 2010, we hosted our 3rd Annual Celebration of Hope Dinner at Medinah Banquets in Addison, IL.  We raised over $30,000 (excluding matching gifts) and had 352 attendees.  Keynote speaker, Michael Cobb, shared the story of what inspired him to play football professionally and the hope he found in Jesus.  We also found out what receiving a care package meant to two families who received support from Phil's Friends in the last year.  For the Guzy family, the care package and card were reminders  of God's love as Jess received treatments for Burkitt's lymphoma.  For the Ostdick family, receiving a care package opened the door that allowed Cary to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior and friend. 

We support our patients and their families in several ways: care package delivery, weekly card ministry, phone calls, one-on-one spiritual support and also through prayer.  In the past year, we have delivered more than 1,400 care packages.  We send hand-written cards to approximately 400 patients per week.  And we can't count the number of prayers that we've said.  We've reached out to patients in 31 states and 4 countries outside of the U.S.

As we close the year, it has become clear the needs to be fulfilled in the coming years are greater than our current operations can support.  We will be moving into a larger office/warehouse space in 2011.  We already know opportunities will be presented to reach out to cancer patients throughout the United States as well as in other parts of the world.

We would like to thank everyone who continues to support our charity whether it's through financial gifts, volunteer service, or simply referring others to us and enabling us to continue to be a source of hope to those who have cancer.

And as always, if you would like to help, we are always looking for volunteers.  Please contact Kari at volunteer@philsfriends.org to learn more about current and upcoming opportunities.