Community Cause of the Year

Winner:

aTeam Ministries

Serving pediatric cancer patients and their families

At Anderson Thrower’s 15-month checkup, everything had been fine, so his diagnosis with leukemia a month later came as a surprise.

“The first few months we were in shock,” his mother, Jan, said. “There was so much we had to learn about chemo and medicines.”

As they learned to care for their son during his cancer treatments, Jan and her husband, Andy, also learned a lot about others walking through similar experiences. Most children with pediatric cancer in Alabama are treated at Children’s of Alabama, and they found that many families would get up at 4 a.m. to drive their child to get treatment in Birmingham and then return home late that night. This realization, along with a Bible verse the Throwers’ pastor had sent them, 2 Corinthians 1:4-5, which talks about comforting others going through things you have gone through, planted a seed in Andy.

Within a year, the Throwers had not only developed a vision to help families going through what they were going through; they had also received 501(c)(3) status to start a new nonprofit to do so, although Anderson wouldn’t complete treatment until March 2012. 

In the early months, the aTeam board met in the Throwers’ basement and Andy worked another full-time job. Today, they have grown so that Andy is now a full-time employee of aTeam, and they have an office on Crescent Avenue in downtown Homewood. 

“We understand what it’s like to be told your child has cancer, to go through treatment, to learn about the time frames,” Andy said. “We talk the language that all of us can speak. They don’t know what they will go through, but we have seen other kids go through it.”

Around 20 children who are recovering from transplants have lived in the two fully furnished aTeam apartments in The Hill. Each family stays two to three months, as it takes about six months for a child’s immune system to recover and they are hospitalized for the first three.

Jan calls it a “home away from home” and hopes that it becomes that for the families. 

“We feel like there is some healing that takes place at home that just can’t take place in a sterile hospital environment,” Andy said. 

Some families have estimated that it has saved them $5,000-$10,000 to stay there as their homes are more than 45 minutes away. aTeam also hopes to build a multifamily facility with individual apartments by 2020. 

The apartments are one of many ways aTeam focuses on caring for pediatric oncology and hematology patients and their families.

Often they help families with everyday matters that are neglected while they are focusing on caregiving. Sometimes that looks like paying a power bill or helping catch up on a mortgage payment. Sometimes that looks like paying for part of funeral expenses or for a headstone.

“You don’t want to lose sight of everything that goes on even when you go through tragedy,” Andy said. “Families get into caregiving mode and are in such an emotional state that bills start adding up.”

The organization also focuses on awareness in September, which is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, using gold ribbons. In the past, cities have issued special proclamations for the month and high schools have allowed them to paint a gold ribbon on their football field. 

“We have a desire to help families through pediatric cancer because we were one of them,” Andy said. “It becomes a community of people you can relate to that others who have not been through it can’t relate to.”

aTeam was originally the name of a half-marathon team that ran for Anderson, but now the Throwers say it also stands for “all.”

“We have learned that the siblings are just as important as the patient,” Andy said, explaining what they have seen in their older daughter and other families they have worked with. “It’s important that you focus just as much on the siblings emotionally, spiritually and financially.” 

For instance, at a lake party they host, they recognize siblings just as much as parents. They also accept donations of tickets to sporting events and give them to family members, not just patients, acknowledging it might be just as important for a parent and healthy sibling to have time to bond, as pediatric cancer puts a strain on everyone involved.

“None of the families chose what they got, but their whole world changes,” Andy said. “It’s a long-term journey. It doesn’t end quickly.”

Runner Up

The Bell Center for Early Intervention Programs

The Bell Center works with about 100 families each year to provide early intervention services for children from six weeks through age 3. When the children who live in Homewood reach age 4, they usually enter the Homewood School System. 

The Bell Center’s employees come together as a team and treat the kids like family. Their qualified professionals include physical and occupational therapists, speech/language pathologists and early childhood special education teachers.

The Bell Center’s programs are designed to promote growth in gross and fine motor skills, as well as language, cognition, self-help and play skills. Each child is evaluated annually, and goals are tailored specifically to each child’s needs. 

Many Homewood residents come once a week to serve for two hours with a Bell Center child, young professionals serve through The Bell Center’s Junior Board and teenagers work with the center through its Bell Center Youth Alliance program.

The Service Guild of Birmingham provides volunteers for The Bell Center and also raises a large percentage of their budget, which they raise through the Guild Gala and The Bell Runners program. 

Ann Holloway, a member of Service Guild, and Betty Bell, who worked with the Center for Developing Learning Disabilities, helped start The Bell Center in 1984. They began meeting with five children in a Sunday school classroom in the basement of Trinity United Methodist Church. The current location on 29th Court South opened in 1994. 

The Bell Center is completely privately funded; no state or federal grant money is provided. So it welcomes the support of community both through fundraising and through volunteering.

For more information, visit thebellcenter.org or call 879-3417.