Heather's Birthday Campaign
Milton Marks Family Camp is a free annual weekend camp retreat, providing respite and community for families coping with a parent's malignant brain tumor. At camp, caregivers don’t have to think about who’s watching their kids or their sick partners while they get a massage or engage in art therapy. Patients know that their doctors and nurses understand what everyday life is like for them living with a brain tumor, because the medical team is living on-site sharing the experience. The children are surrounded by other children just like them. There are songs, support groups, and a campfire with s’mores.
After a year of virtual support groups and programming, we
came back together in person in spring 2022. We included
a new programmatic element in our camp program this year - setting
time aside for the children to get to know their parents' doctors
from UCSF. After camp, 80% of the children said they felt more
comfortable with their parents' providers than they did before camp.
One child said:
"After having my interview with 2 UCSF team medical members. I realized I put these people on a pedestal of sorts. I have never met them or truly known what they are feeling, and I do now. I still feel their work is important of course, but they're less scary, and more viewed as people just like me."
Camp was an amazing experience and we are excited to gather again in summer 2023.
As Camp's Assistant Director for the last eight years, I've seen
that this community a blessing for those it serves, but it's also a
blessing for those who participate in building it. You can read more
about my personal experience at MMFC in
this HuffPost article and YOU can help us support more
families this year by donating to Milton Marks Family Camp.
I am trying to raise $1500 for MMFC for my birthday,
December 9th. A gift in any amount make a big difference
to families coping with brain tumors. Thank you for your support!
About The Milton Marks Family Camp
The Milton Marks Neuro-Oncology Family Camp represents an unprecedented effort to address the needs of brain tumor patients and their families that reach beyond medical therapy. Spanning three days, the camp creates a space where families with a parent who has brain cancer come together to create a community where they feel supported, cared for, and understood. The burden of care and isolation that often comes with this illness is temporarily lifted so that families can deepen their connections with their spouses and children, make new friends, and come to better understand what that are facing.
MMFC backstory:
In 2010, Milton Marks III was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and he, along with his wife and three young sons, began a two-year journey that profoundly changed their lives. Over the course of his lifetime, Milton was recognized as a civic and community leader and it is in the memory of his passion to help others that his wife Abigail began a mission to better understand and meet the needs of brain tumor patients and their families. Her vision evolved into a camp where families living with brain cancer can come together and find respite in a holistic environment. Together, with members of the UCSF Neuro-Oncology medical and nursing teams, and others interested in improving the quality of life of brain tumor patients and their families, Abby's vision became a reality. Since its inception in Fall 2014, thirty families have attended the Milton Marks Family Camp; some families have attended multiple times.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
With the generous help of our donors, we can cover all costs
for families who wish to attend. Your gift will enable us to
continue, and expand, the Milton Marks Neuro-Oncology Family Camp.
Donations can be made securely through this page, or if you
prefer to donate by check, please make payable to Community
Initiatives and indicate "Milton Marks Neuro-Oncology
Family Camp" on the memo line.
Checks can be mailed to:
Community Initiatives (FSP
#6356)
1000 Broadway, Suite 480
Oakland, CA 94607
The Milton Marks Neuro-Oncology Family Camp is under the
fiscal sponsorship of Community Initiatives, a 501(c)3 non-profit,
so your donation is tax-deductible.
EIN: 94-3255070
Should you have any questions please contact us at [email protected]
