Matt Gutierrez Dalrymple
Staff Writer
Gabriella Cummings, senior communications major, teamed up with the Dream Street Foundation to help raise awareness for children with childhood cancer and other severe illnesses Wednesday in the Quay Davis Executive Board Room.
Dream Street is a small mom and pop organization whose mission for over the past 30 years has been to help spread awareness to childhood cancer and cater to the kids who are suffering from these illnesses. They often hold free week-long camps for the children to have a fun experience even though they may be going through some challenging times.
“The more the awareness the better for the foundation,” Renato Basile, president of the Dream Street Foundation, said. “It expands that wide range of diversity, it expands that wide range of knowledge, and it keeps the interest up there.”
The event itself was very well put together and welcoming for all the attendees to come enjoy some snacks while getting to interact with one another and write a special heartfelt message to children who have cancer. However, the overall message that this event is supposed to send is greater than just writing a nice note to make someone smile.
“The importance of this event is honestly just teaching people about early signs of childhood cancer,” Cummings said. “And also how to help kids with cancer because it is a hard thing to process.”
Cummings then went on to lead in a presentation where she explained the overall importance of childhood cancer awareness and ways people could help out just by looking for early signs in a child.
The Order of Omega was also in attendance and Lauren Cassidy, senior criminology major and member of Order of Omega, spoke on why she believes the event is so important.
“We are the honor society of Greek Life,” Cassidy said. “So we do want to help promote different philanthropies because we want to help support all services as much as we can.”
Not only does it bring awareness to the situation but it also allows people to get a better idea on why it is so important to help out and give back in some kind of way. Even if it’s doing something as little as cheering the children up with cards.
“I like how we get the opportunity to write letters to the kids and motivate them to just stay positive,” Jazmin Avendano, sophomore education major, said. “Hopefully these cards are able to help them with worries that they may be feeling.”
The Dream Street Foundation plans to continue to spread their awareness and foundation for years to come to be able to care for children in need of a foundation that truly shows genuine love and interest for a group of individuals who require special care.
Matt Gutierrez Dalrymple can be reached at matthew.gutierrezdalrymple@laverne.edu.
Matt Gutierrez Dalrymple is a staff writer for the Campus Times.
