Family matters

“Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.”
-Michael J. Fox-

Fortunate is the person blessed with a great family, whether it’s one they were born into or one they’ve created (or both). At Advantage, we consider our small organization to be like a family in that a genuine concern and respect for each other and those with whom we work is a critical part of our team dynamics.

Today we’ve got two of our own on our mind, one whose son just earned a silver medal at the Olympics and the other whose daughter and son-in-law continue to bring awareness to important issues about childhood cancer nearly a year after they started a heart-wrenching journey with their beloved daughter Francesca.

Both families were shining on the world stage last week, making us all at Advantage feel incredibly proud.

When your son makes it to the Olympics but a pandemic prevents you from being able to go to Japan with him and watch, what do you do? Advantage Client Services Specialist Terry Speer went camping with 10 close friends to celebrate and watch the games together. They have all known and camped with her son, Joe Ryan, since he was a boy.

At 3am from inside her tent, Terry awoke to watch the final game on her phone as baseball’s Team USA finished the series with a significant silver medal. We’ll be sharing more about them soon on our blog!

The other is Advantage Partner Francine Smilen, whose daughter Rachel Ensign and son-in-law Andrew Kaczynski are both accomplished journalists. Andrew recently wrote a compassionate and informative essay about the costs of childhood cancer that was prominently featured in the New York Times: “I will mourn my daughter forever. But I was one of the lucky ones.”

His article draws attention to the overwhelming financial burdens and stress families must endure in addition to the heartbreak of trying to help a child survive cancer, including not just medical costs but also parking tickets, utility shutoffs, funeral costs, and more. “Recognizing those costs means also finding legislative solutions to ease the burden,” he writes.

So today, we celebrate family matters as we also remind ourselves that, above all, families matter.

One great thing for 08.10.21 – Baseball’s Team USA – gold in our hearts. Joe Ryan and teammate Shane Baz on what it means to represent their country

→ More great things