Keep Swimming Foundation Selects 5 Families for Grants

Keep Swimming Foundation is pleased to share the stories of five families who received a combined $17,000 in Keep Swimming Foundation grants between May 2021 and December 2021.

Keep Swimming Foundation chose these families after reviewing dozens of applications throughout 2021 with the goal of providing financial relief to the most deserving families who faced true financial hardship due to a long-term inpatient hospitalization.

Family #1 – Golden Valley, ND – Recipients of a $7,500 Grant

After being prescribed antibiotics to treat an infection, this family’s father/husband went into multi-organ failure. He was airlifted by helicopter from their small North Dakota town to a hospital in Minnesota. The patient’s wife accrued over $5,000 in hotel bills throughout a multi-month hospitalization, which involved an extended period in which the patient was placed on a ventilator.

This Keep Swimming Foundation grant was provided to assure the patient’s wife could afford her hotel debt while also covering meal and cab expenses when she was commuting to the hospital.

Family #2 – Chicago, IL – Recipients of a $4,000 Grant

The family of this baby girl spent over two months in the hospital with their daughter who had received a complicated small bowel transplant. The family was routinely spending nearly $100 per day to park their car so that they could spend the entire day with their daughter before returning home to sleep. In addition to the cost of bedside meals, the family was burdened with dozens of additional tanks of gas each month as they traveled daily between the suburbs of Chicago and the city hospital.

This Keep Swimming Foundation grant aided the family in paying down large amounts of credit card debt, which was incurred solely to be bedside with their daughter in her journey to wellness.

Family #3 – Grand Rapids, MI – Recipients of a $3,500 Grant

An infant was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan who soon developed an infection, which required the aid of a far more specialized institution. The child was transported to a hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota (three hours from the family’s home) where he required close supervision, a shunt to be placed in his head, and IV antibiotics for 28 consecutive days.

This Keep Swimming Foundation grant aided the family in numerous submitted expenses from their 28 day hospitalization, including lodging expenses and bedside meals.

Family #4 – South Lake Tahoe, CA – Recipients of a $1,500 Grant

The mother of this California family received the phone call with the great news that she would be the recipient of a matching pair of lungs. The family had saved for their extended trip for several years knowing that when the call came, they would need to travel across the state of California to be with their mother for many weeks after her lung transplant. Unfortunately, weeks prior to receiving the call for her transplant, the family was forced to evacuate their home due to a nearby wildfire. This caused them to utilize a great deal of the saved money they had planned to use for their mother’s hospitalization, thus putting the family of four in great debt as they attempted to navigate the expensive costs of the city in which the hospital was located.

This Keep Swimming Foundation grant will aid the family in paying off some of the debt they took on but had previously planned for.

Family #5 – Concord, CA – Recipients of a $500 Grant

Another family from California whose loved one also received a lung transplant spent six weeks in the hospital. Throughout their hospitalization, the family accrued a great deal of debt pertaining to their inpatient hospital stay. The vast majority of their submitted debt was in regards to an AirBnB the family rented throughout their stay.

This Keep Swimming Foundation grant will help the family reduce the total amount of debt they are facing post-hospitalization.

Keep Swimming Foundation would like to thank its donors for making these grants possible. The foundation plans to select and announce the next group of Keep Swimming Foundation grant recipients in the spring of 2022.

Keep Swimming Foundation Announces 2022 Application Deadlines

2022 APPLICATION DEADLINES:

2022 DEADLINES:

Quarter 1: Applications Must Be Submitted Between 1/1/22-3/31/22
Applications to be reviewed by 4/15/22.

Quarter 2: Applications Must Be Submitted Between 4/1/22-6/30/22
Applications to be reviewed by 7/15/22

Future deadlines/information to be shared at a later date.

Applies to 2022 hospitalizations

Keep Swimming Foundation Selected as a Milwaukee Sports and Social Charity

This summer, Milwaukee Sports and Social will be hosting recreational softball and kickball leagues in the city of Milwaukee and they have chosen to give back to charity!

The winners of each of their softball and kickball leagues will be able to choose from a select few charities to make a donation to. First place teams will be able to donate $200 to a charity of their choosing. Second place finishers will choose a charity to receive $100 and a third-place team will choose a pre-approved charity to give $50! All of the money will be coming from Milwaukee Sports and Social, so the players do not pay a thing when they win!

Keep Swimming Foundation has been selected as a pre-approved charity for the Summer 2021 season!

We would like to thank Milwaukee Sports and Social for supporting our mission and wish the best of luck to all of the co-ed softball and kickball players!

Sports Memorabilia Fundraiser Raises $5,840 for Families in Need!

Keep Swimming Foundation would like to thank every individual who participated in our Sports Memorabilia Fundraiser on April 18th! We would also like to thank the wonderful people at Ultimate Autographs, who were very accommodating and who allowed us to use their UA Live Break Room for the afternoon to raise $5,840 for the families of critically ill patients!

The event was a huge success and we hope to bring it back in 2022 with brand new signatures and great pieces of Sports Memorabilia!

Until then, please be on the lookout for our next digital fundraiser, which we will announce in the coming weeks!

Thank you all again for your support of our mission.

Keep Swimming Foundation Announces Monthly Grant Deadlines for 2021

With the year 2020 being filled with so many changes, Keep Swimming Foundation's Board of Directors opted to begin processing applications monthly (on a trial basis), as opposed to our traditional quarterly structure. The plan was to test the monthly process for six months, ending in December 2020, before evaluating the results.

We are pleased to announce we are making the monthly grant process permanent for families in need!

Below is a list of our posted monthly deadlines for the upcoming calendar year.

To qualify for a particular month, the family must be inpatient for, at least, one calendar day in the month in which they are applying, while also meeting our standard qualifications.

2021 Monthly Deadlines:

January: February 5, 2021

February: March 5, 2021

March: April 9, 2021

April: May 7, 2021

May: June 4, 2021

June: July 9, 2021

July: August 6, 2021

August: September 3, 2021

September: October 8, 2021

October: November 5, 2021

November: December 3, 2021

December: January 7, 2022

Applies to 2021 hospitalizations

Keep Swimming Foundation Announces Change in Board of Directors

Two members of Keep Swimming Foundation’s Board of Directors have stepped down.

Jim Ventura, who joined the foundation’s Board of Directors in 2018, played an important role in helping the foundation select many incredible families throughout his two years of service. Jim also provided a great deal of assistnace in making our 2nd Annual Gala’s ballroom a smashing success through his tireless effort to acquire unique cars.

Karrie Driscoll, who joined the Board of Directors in early 2020, is stepping down to focus the bulk of her time on her children and family. While Karrie joined during an unprecedentedly slow year for our foundation, her input and medical perspective on every selection call was greatly appreciated and she will be sorely missed.

The current 2021 Board of Directors roster is as follows:

Bill Coon - Board President

Ann Coon - Board Treasurer

Lauren Irwin, CRNA, MSN, APN - Board Secretary

Meghan Christopher, ARPN-CRNA, MSN

Mary Rolston

Peter G. Sparacio, MBA, ASQ

Keep Swimming Foundation Selects 2 Families for Grants

Since selecting our first grant recipients in 2018, Keep Swimming Foundation‘s Board of Directors have chosen families on a quarterly basis. The process of selecting families in need required this lengthened time to thoroughly vet and analyze each application. 

2020 has been a truly unprecedented year for the healthcare industry, patients, and the family members of the critically ill. Not only has the pandemic changed the way providers care for their patients, it has changed the way families can show their love and support for their critically ill children, parents, siblings and/or spouses. In May 2020, we began noticing a major shift in our applications. The number of applications had significantly declined, due to various hospitals placing strict no-visitor protocols for the family members of the patients. Atop of this, many hospital-driven aid programs (cafeteria voucher programs, recovery homes, etc.) had been eliminated for budgetary reasons. For those at a hospital that allowed a minimum of one immediate family member to visit, we noticed the circumstances these family members experienced were dire, due largely to their inability to spend full days and nights in the hospital room with the patient. As a result, this caused an increase in lodging expenses for most of our applicants. This lodging expense, combined with pandemic-related job loss, resulted in critical circumstances for a handful of applicants.

Upon noticing this change in applications, our Board of Directors chose to adjust our grant giving from quarterly to monthly, for we wanted to aid these families sooner than later with their exhaustive lodging expenses. Through all of this, our Board of Directors made sure to uphold the same stringent analysis of every application. As a result, there were months where zero families were selected. However, of the families we did select since May, we as a whole are very proud of our selections and are pleased to share them with you at this time. 

Below are the stories of two families who received a combined $6,730 in financial aid between late spring and early summer 2020. The remainder of our selections will be shared with our donors throughout this holiday season.

As always, we thank you, our amazing donors, for allowing us to continue to help families in need, especially during this difficult time for us all.

Family #1 - Pearl City, IL - Recipients of a $3,480 Grant

On January 24, 2020, an Illinois husband and father of two went to a doctor for what he thought was a sinus infection. He later called his wife to say that he was headed via ambulance to Madison, Wisconsin, after being diagnosed with and admitted for Leukemia. He stayed at the hospital for nearly a month but returned in March for chemotherapy, in April for bone marrow transplant conditioning, a bone marrow transplant in May, and a fever in June. After his transplant, various complications and tests resulted from Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), a condition that occurs when donor bone marrow or stem cells attack the recipient.

This family felt the full hardship of COVID-19 restrictions. His wife shared with us, “I’ll never forget how I drove (nearly 2 hours) and dropped him off…to go through the hardest thing in his life alone. I had to pull the car over (for a) good cry (before I drove home). Visitors were not allowed due to COVID-19.” She served as his daily caretaker and advocate once some visitor restrictions were lifted. Bedside meals were not allowed and masks were mandatory. Parking expenses inflated near the hospital, and lodging cost them nearly $3,500. She detailed their challenges, “Programs available prior to COVID-19 were no longer an option…closed to patients as they repurposed the rooms for healthcare workers who didn’t want to return to their families…a local bed and breakfast dedicated to transplant families also closed its door. Open homes through (rental) no longer could provide a safe place for transplant patients…The doctor requested (we) remain in isolation during COVID-19…I’m required to cook a “neutropenic” diet and ordering out is discouraged. I moved to a larger motel room with a kitchen available. I relied on food delivery for my groceries.”

Keep Swimming Foundation was pleased to provide this family with a $3,480 grant to alleviate the unexpected financial burden largely attributed to COVID-19 restrictions.

Family #2 - Nashville, TN - Recipients of a $3,250 Grant

A Tennessee baby was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) at twenty weeks in utero. This is a rare condition caused by a combination of four heart defects that are present at birth, requiring multiple surgeries. She had a full TOF repair and was admitted to the Cardiac Step-Down Unit for recovery.

Their Social Worker submitted a letter on behalf of the family. In part, it described the family’s non-medical expenses: “(The parents) have been utilizing and paying for local lodging throughout (their daughter’s) admission due to COVID-19 restrictions that only allow one parent to be present at the hospital daily. Her father has also been traveling back and forth…to work and visit with their other children…they have (also) had food, gas, and daily living expenses (to maintain) their bills at home.”

Keep Swimming Foundation’s Board of Directors are glad to provide a $3,250 grant to this family, as they stay strong for their baby and continue to keep hope. This amount reimburses all submitted expenses.

We are only able to provide these grants to families in need because of you, our amazing donors. Please consider clicking the button below to make a donation to Keep Swimming Foundation today so that we may continue our work as we head into 2021.

3rd Annual Gala Postponed to 2021

Due to COVID-19, we are postponing our 3rd Annual Gala, initially slated for August 8, 2020.

The decision to postpone the 3rd Annual Gala was made with the safety of our friends and family in mind, for the health and well-being of our incredible community of supporters is paramount to us all.

We want to thank everyone who purchased tickets to this year’s big event. Your support means the world to us. All tickets have been fully refunded (including all credit card transaction fees), via check. Refund checks were mailed to ticket purchasers in the past five business days.

The new 3rd Annual Gala date will be August 7, 2021 at the Arlington International Racecourse in Arlington Heights, IL.

As for this year, we are in the process of transitioning to a Virtual Gala, which will be held online later this year. We will announce more details in the coming weeks and months.

Until then, we wish you all happiness and health during this unique period in our nation’s history.

2020 Q1 Grant Recipients Announced!

For 2020 Q1, Keep Swimming Foundation’s Board of Directors selected four families to receive a combined $6,550 in financial aid. 

The lives of these families have been improved because of the incredible generosity of our donors. The following are the stories of the latest Keep Swimming Foundation grant recipients:

Family #1 – Fargo, ND – Recipients of a $3,000 Grant

In January 2019, this family’s North Dakota farm house burnt to the ground after a defective furnace exploded in their basement. The entire family was inside the home. The mother was able to find her daughter, who rushed outside to discover her husband. Both thought the other had grabbed their four-year-old son. Unfortunately, he was still in the home. The father made several attempts to rescue their son, causing him to sustain third degree burns on 58% of his body. Sadly, he was unable to find their child, who perished in their home. 

Shortly thereafter, the father was rushed to the nearest specialty burn center in Minnesota, where he is recovering to this day. His wife and mother have been at his bedside each day while a relative cares for and provides shelter for their daughter in North Dakota. While their community has rallied around their family to provide them with funds to build a new home, this grant will help both his mother and wife afford the hotel and bedside meal expenses associated with remaining at his bedside in Minnesota. 

Family #2 – Erie, PA – Recipients of a $1,800 Grant

In 2014, the wife of this Pennsylvania couple was diagnosed with Pulmonary Hypertension. She received outpatient treatment via a Pittsburgh hospital until late 2018, when the doctors said they could no longer care for her worsening condition. Her case was transferred to a specialty hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. It was there that she began a series of tests to be added to the lung transplant wait list. Months later, in May 2019, she received her new lungs, but experienced a multitude of post-transplant complications. She has since been transferred multiple times between the hospital’s ICU and a patient-focused living facility, where she currently resides today.

Her husband, who is retired, moved to Cleveland to be alongside her in both the ICU room and the aforementioned living facility. However, due to COVID-19, he is no longer allowed to be in the hospital. He has since moved back to their Pennsylvania home, where he communicates with her daily.

This grant will enable him to cover many of the expenses incurred, particularly related to bedside meals and lodging, during their elongated out-of-state medical battle.

Family #3 – Warwick, RI – Recipients of a $1,000 Grant 

The infant daughter of this Rhode Island family was born with dozens of congenital medical conditions, requiring her to undergo six hospitalizations since birth. Two admissions occurred during this quarter. Her most recent hospitalization is still ongoing.

The child’s mother quit her job to oversee her daughter’s healthcare. Meanwhile, her father continues to maintain the family’s finances. Not only has he driven over two hours each day to visit his daughter in a Boston hospital, he has also taken off several days of work to be with his daughter. There have been instances in which it appeared she would not make it through the day or night. 

This grant helped the father cover his increased gasoline expenses and provided the mother with bedside meals while she spends her days with her daughter in the pediatric ICU.

Family #4 – Chicago, IL – Recipients of a $750 Grant 

In March 2019, the husband and father of this Chicago family was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). He underwent various treatments, including chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant throughout the spring and summer. In November 2019, his AML returned. Shortly after Christmas, he underwent his second stem cell transplant before being admitted for inpatient care in early January 2020 where he remained for several weeks until, sadly, he passed away in the Chicago hospital.

This grant has been provided to his wife to reimburse her for bedside meals and parking expenses, covering the full amount she requested. 

Keep Swimming Foundation would like to thank all of our wonderful donors for their continuous support, especially during the difficult time our country is facing, as a result of COVID-19. It is because of your generosity that we are able to continue helping families in their darkest hours.

Keep Swimming Foundation’s 2nd Annual Gala – A ‘Roaring’ Success!

The amazing night of September 13, 2019 began with a password, at a ‘Speakeasy’ in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Once past the bouncer, guests of Keep Swimming Foundation (KSF) were mesmerized by a transformed venue and partook in the spirit of the twenties – the roaring twenties, alive at The Stonegate!

Once again, Bill Coon (Founder and Board President) was the Master of Ceremonies for the hundreds in attendance. After the cocktail hour and Silent Auction bidding, Coon detailed the growth over the last year, and shared videos of families impacted by KSF grants. Guests then participated in a riveting live auction, which was highlighted by one guest setting a new KSF Gala bidding record for dinner and Celine Dion tickets in Chicago. The evening concluded with a stock market crash-inspired raffle (with the prize being 9 tickets to Disney World), the Green Beads game (back by popular demand), photos with two classic cars, and hours of dancing (courtesy of Spinnin’ Discs).

In total, $33,011 was raised to help families in need, surpassing the total of the Inaugural Gala by nearly $20,000. Keep Swimming Foundation plans to host its 3rd Annual Gala in August 2020 in the Chicagoland area.

Suburban Chicago’s The Daily Herald reported on the event in their 9/23/19 Neighbor section.

Photos from the event may be viewed at KSF’s Facebook page.

Video content for the 2nd Annual Gala may be viewed at KSF’s YouTube page.

Keep Swimming Foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides financial relief to families facing extended inpatient medical care at accredited USA hospitals.

The evening was made possible by generous sponsors and volunteers, including: the Alec K. and Viena P. Gianaras Foundation, Deljo Heating and Cooling, Mike and Lisa DeMarco, Lerner & Rowe Injury Attorneys, DLR Group, Peter Gus Sparacio, Merrill Smith, Carole & Jim Walker, Phil Ciccarelli – Real Estate Broker, and Dan Powell. Wine was provided by the David Family and the Lucca Family. Beer was provided by Lagunitas Brewing Company (for the second year) and Two Brothers Artisan Brewing. Photography was provided by As They Are Photography and Brigitta Fitzgerald.

www.KeepSwimmingFoundation.org/