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2024 in Review!
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🎗💛2024 in Review, 2024 Catch Up💛🎗
✨Year 2. How can it be true?✨

It’s been 2 years without Sophia’s physical presence. Our hearts somehow ache more than ever, but our mission and dedication wage on with the force of her spirit.

We still feel underwater some days, like we can’t breathe from the weight of it all, but then we catch a small glimpse of hope in the smile of a warrior we service, a squeeze from a parent who needed the hand of someone who ‘gets it’,  or receive a gift from a community member who believes in our mission, and we are swiftly reminded that’s what this life is all about – glimmers of hope. And, with your help, we plan to keep on offering just that for families fighting childhood cancer while raising awareness for a cure.

💛 Some of our favorite highlights in our second year, 2024 💛

💛 We serviced over 20 local families this year! What an absolute blessing and honor!

💛 We formally partnered with Western New York Dental Group Williamsville as our corporate sponsor.  Their financial and physical commitment to our mission of RESPITE 🎗️ RESEARCH and 🎗️RELIEF for local pediatric warriors has been unwavering. Thank you for being with us every step of this year!

💛 And…to Cellino Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling – our supporters, our friends, how can we thank you? This year, our tireless efforts paid off when we were the recipients of the Cellino Truck Wrap Contest granting us a $25 donation of every single tune-up for the entire year, as well as a custom wrap of one of their service trucks to advertise STF.  Hopefully, you have seen the truck zooming around town! This organization is truly dedicated to the betterment of the community and our organization, and we are blessed to have you by our side.

In 2024 we didn’t just host our 4 major annual events BUT we made each one of them bigger and better while staying committed to honoring our warriors at every turn.

🥩 Jan 26th:   Our 1st Annual Meat Raffle with ArtyParty716 Meat Raffles was a smashing success.

🏌️‍♀️July 12th: Our 1st Annual Golf Tournament at Diamond Hawk Golf Course and Pub was a blast and a major accomplishment as we made our first major research donation at the event. 

🍋 August 17th:  Our 3rd Lemonade Stand, plus Cellino Truck Wrap Reveal proved that when life hands us lemons (and thunder and wind and rain) we still make lemonade.

🎧 November 2nd: Our 2nd Annual Not-So-Silent Silent Disco – well, IYKYK – smiles and sore feet from start to finish.

💛 We did this all – still as a 100% volunteer organization! This means that every dollar you donate goes to fund our mission of RESPITE🎗️RESEARCH and 🎗️RELIEF. 

With this funding, here is a run-down of some of what we accomplished this year:

🎗️RESPITE🎗️
As we did last year, we continue to save for the purchase or building of a respite home for private family getaways for those in need – One of Sophia’s dreams when starting STF.
In addition, we hosted 3 FREE respite events for our warriors:

🏹 Led by Sophia’s devoted Girl Scout troop, we hosted a FREE camp day for all local warriors and their families, chock full of outdoor activities, experiences, food, and festivity.

🌻 We collaborated with ever–giving Hope Rises and our friends at Olivia’s Bears to host a warrior and caregiver event at Sunflowers of Sanborn in honor of Sophia which gave them a night out in the fields with dinner and entertainment. We are grateful for our partnership with these philanthropic organizations.

🍔 With our friends at Sweet Buffalo and Sonic Drive-In we held a summer Wishlist gathering and fundraising event for Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and Oishei Children’s Hospital where warriors, supporters, and the public had the opportunity to meet our dear friend, Buffalo Bills Corner, Kaiir Elam, Buffalo Bandit Ian McKay and a visit from the Niagara Downunder Kangaroo for some animal therapy while collecting goods for our warriors.

🎃 We again partnered with Sweet Buffalo, Totally Buffalo Cares, and Olivia’s Bears to put on a free Halloween trick-or-treat event for our local warriors jam-packed with sweets, treats,  and fun. When our community organizations join forces, the sky’s the limit for our kids in need!

But providing respite for families did not end there! Here are some highlights:

💛 We were honored to provide a weekend respite for a family with their one-and-only warrior’s last wish – to have his family together for Christmas, under one roof.  We did our best to provide respite with games, activities, treats, meals, family photos from Rebecca Nalbach Photography,  and lots of special touches to make their Christmas as beautiful as it could be.  Our dear friend TJ passed days after this special weekend, and his one-of-a-kind spirit will forever be with us.

💛 With the Buffalo Sabres Foundation and Alex Tuch, we honored fierce warriors, and their families, to a night out in the Alex Tuch Sabres suite, including a meet-and-greet with Alex Tuch.  Plus, created innumerable other respite experiences: Sending a family to a Bills Game, a night out at the circus, another to Training Camp, Disney on Ice, and the list will go on this year.

💛 We’ve served up smiles to the entire pediatric oncology floor at Oishei, known as J12S, with cupcakes, gorgeous Valentines, food including a Christmas Eve meal with the help of JTS Elmwood, coffee for exhausted parents,  and filled Wishlist needs for the patients and staff to be used on the floor.

💛 It was a humbling joy to deliver 186 coveted LEGO sets to Oishei’s Pediatric Oncology Floor, known as J12S, to provide glimpses of respite for patients and parents alike.

💛 We hand-delivered Sunshine Baskets, birthday gifts, and filled Wishlists for warriors while letting them know they are not alone!

💛 We started our Soles from Sophia initiative partnering with G&T Customs which allows our little warriors to pick and design custom sneakers – like the beloved pair Kaiir Elam gifted Sophia on one of her very favorite days.  It’s been a hit with the kids; A great distraction to design them and receive their special delivery.

💛 We sent a TV for PUNT Pediatric Cancer Collaborative beautiful bereavement center honoring families of angel warriors.

💛 Thanks to the help of ChristmasCentral.com  we sent Christmas trees and trimmings to Sophia’s old stomping grounds at Cleveland Clinic for each child on the pediatric oncology floor known as M50 to bring much-needed moments of respite to patients and parents alike at the holidays.

🎗️RESEARCH🎗️
One of our major goals this year was to identify a recipient of our research dollars.  We are 100% confident that Sophia sent this project our way.  The signs could not have been clearer. 

Because of your generous support, we were able to donate $10,000 directly to fund a research trial for rare pediatric cancers including Ewing Sarcoma, the beast that Sophia battled.  This trailblazing trial hopes to uncover less toxic, more effective treatment options for kids and is being run, right here, in Buffalo by Dr. Joyce Ohm at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center 

We plan to continue to donate to this initiative and we wholeheartedly pray that our efforts will result in advancement and the cure that is so desperately needed. 

🎗️RELIEF🎗️
When pediatric cancer strikes, it affects the family physically, emotionally, and financially.  Many parents must trade their day jobs to accompany their little warriors to appointments, visits, pokes, prods, scans, infusions, transfusions, tests, and draws, the list is never-ending and cancer gives no grace for scheduling meetings or giving availability.  Cancer calls at all hours of the day and night and caregivers have to be ready to spring into action at any given moment.  Unexpected stays can be weeks or months long! This takes a financial toll on families.  Sometimes this type of care can go on for years.  We offer financial assistance to caregivers to help with bills, meals, and other expenses related to the care of their children and to nurses for their patients.

💛 This year we have provided innumerable gift cards or spending vouchers for meals, parking, and necessities. From DoorDash for meals during stays to Target gift cards for needs for treatment travel, we love to give financial relief to families in need of this type of support.

💛 We donated $4,074 in parking relief at Oishei for warrior families with the help of Rosanna Berardi of Berardi Immigration Law and Luxury Purse Bingo of Western New York. Parking for stays can add up and be an unexpected burden for families at the end of an exhausting stay.

💛 We fulfilled Wishlist needs for the Child Life Team at Roswell’s Pediatric Cancer Unit.

💛 With the help of an anonymous donor, we sent private Christmas meals to warrior families so they could enjoy a warm meal on the holiday without the stress that this expense can bring at the holidays.

💛 We assisted with a much-needed down payment for a car, helped with a vet bill when a family pet was in need of euthanasia, aided a family with a handicap-accessible bathroom, and sent financial relief checks to families in need.

We feel blessed to be this type of relief to families, knowing first-hand the impact that a donation can have in hard times.

✨As 2025 begins, we are more ready than ever to fight for respite, research, and relief for our warriors, always inspired by our one-and-only, Sophia Brielle Benintende.✨

🙌 A special thanks to our supporters, donors.  You are making a difference in the lives of our youngest warriors.  To Kimberly LaRussa of Sweet Buffalo for the constant media support, to Joe Sorrentino of 716Sold Real Estate for donating $500 for every house sold, and to all of our event sponsors and supporters, the tireless and dedicated committee members who make our world go round:  You are a part of our team and YOU are making a difference in this world.

👀Keep an eye out for this year’s events:👀

🏌️‍♀️ Friday, June 6th, 2025: 2nd annual STF Golf Tournament Diamond Hawk Golf Course and Pub.

🍋 Saturday, July 26th, 2025: 4th Annual Lemonade Stand to be held at Main-Transit Fire Department Pavillion.

🎧 November 1st, 2025 our 3rd Annual Not-So-Silent Halloween Silent Disco at Sto Lat Bar in Williamsville.