Important UPDATE | Every Parents Worst Nightmare {VIDEO PODCAST}

It's every parent's worst nightmare. But what if you, a family member or friend, learned that your child had pediatric cancer? It’s unimaginable, but such diagnoses happen every day.

That’s where the Michael Hoefflin Foundation steps in and helps. The Michael Hoefflin Foundation is a non-profit organization that assists children diagnosed with cancer and their families in the Santa Clarita, Antelope, Ventura, and San Fernando Valleys. For over 25 years, the Foundation has provided individualized, caring support that addresses the various ways in which life is disrupted for local families facing a pediatric cancer diagnosis. They provide financial, social, and emotional support to local families dealing with this terrible disease. Crucial aid to families dealing with the emotional and unexpected financial burden of cancer. The aim of the Michael Hoefflin Foundation is to ensure that families have what they need so their child can concentrate on getting well. It is only through the generosity of supporters like you, that we can deliver on our mission of Hope, Help, and Healing.

On May 20, 2023, the Michael Hoefflin Foundation is hosting its Annual Walk and Pancake Breakfast event at The City of Santa Clarita ’s The Centre in support of kids with cancer. This year’s event will have something fun the whole family will enjoy with tons of free activities for children of all ages to a traditional all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast. The Michael Hoefflin Foundation provides such important resources to families battling the throws of cancer, including care packages, counseling services, college scholarships, bereavement support, and so much more. 

I hope you’ll consider participating in the event this year, and taking part in a truly meaningful event to honor all of the children in our community currently fighting cancer. 

Show Notes:

A list of ways to get involved this year:

• Link to register for the walk and purchase your pancake breakfast tickets HERE.
• Link to volunteer click HERE.
• Link to donate items for the event click HERE.

Sponsorship opportunities include $5,000 Hero Presenting Sponsor, $2,500 Guardian Sponsor $1,000 Champion Sponsor, $500 Star Sponsor, and $250 Foundation Friend Sponsor.

It will be a fantastic morning with every walk participant receiving a complimentary gift! Award for Top Individual Fundraiser and Top Team Fundraiser. All money raised from the “2023 Walk for MHF” event will go directly to provide Hope. Help. Healing.™ to families struggling with pediatric cancer.

 For details, Michael Hoefflin Offices at 661-250-4100 or contact our event coordinator Kelly O’Keefe by cell at 661-433-8425 or by email at kelly@scvconnected.com or visit www.mhf.org

Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions, and feel free to forward this to anyone you think would be interested! 

 Additional event details can be found here: 2023 MHF Walk for Kids with Cancer - Campaign (classy.org).

 Make sure to get social with us HERE.

Hit follow on your favorite podcast app & leave a lovely rating, and review on your favorite podcasting platform!

SCV Connected is on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube

SC Connected is brought to you by Kelly O'Keefe of SCV Connected.

Transcript

Hey guys, it's Kelly O'Keefe host of the SCV Connected Podcast. y'all  we  have unexpectedly gone dark for the month of may. I did not anticipate this happening, but I have to be honest. And I wanted to give you this important update which I will go into and just a second. In the meantime, I just have to give thanks for following along with us and sticking around for season two, but also just keep you updated. That we are unexpectedly dark just for the month of may. We will be back in June. We have some phenomenal guests we have already recorded with they're in the can. They're ready to go. I just didn't think I could do it justice with all the things going on in life. We've been sick. We're planning events. We, life has happening. Kids are busy and I was being really connected on my phone constantly. And so I needed to put the podcast down. So I apologize for going dark, but we will be back. 

Like I said, we have some really, really great guests coming up and I want you. To hear them. So after the event is over. I will have time to focus on that. In the meantime, if you would like to be on the podcast yourself, please, please go ahead and email me Kelly@scvconnected.com and that's K E L L Y. 

 Also, if you want to get involved with the project, I'm going to. Let you in on and just a second. Go ahead and email me as well. And we will get you connected there. Sponsorship opportunities, volunteer opportunities. 

Participation opportunities, all the things. So as part of life happening, we got really sick and I was supposed to be a part of this episode. For SCVTV.  Instead of talking to you about the Michael Hoffman Foundation. I'm just going to go ahead and play this episode. So I just want to shout out as SCVTV for partnering with me and allowing me to release this episode. 

And give a shout out to our neighbor Holly Cordova,

She has just a true gem. She's a former board member for the Michael Hoffland foundation. She always speaks at our annual events and she is just a light. She has been through cancer with her son. And she can speak firsthand on the experience that she's had on both ends as a board member and, as a guest of ours. So without further ado, I can keep on rambling forever because y'all, I love a microphone. 

Without further ado, we're just going to loop in the interview with SCV TV's community corner. And you can hear more from Holly herself. And the meantime, don't forget to stay connected. Keep in touch. Like subscribe and share this episode with friends and family. And hopefully we'll see you out at the walk. May 20th. From 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Tons of opportunities to join us. So I hope we'll see you there. Come say hi. 

Talk soon.  

welcome back to SCV TV's Community Corner. The Michael Hofland Foundation is an incredible nonprofit that provides services, support, and community for families of children who've been diagnosed with cancer. Their work has impacted countless families and continues to provide much needed support that allows their child to focus on getting better.

It's such an important non profit, and coming up this May, we all have the opportunity to come out and show our support for the Michael Hofland Foundation. Their upcoming Walk for Kids with Cancer will raise funds to continue providing support and services for families dealing with pediatric cancer diagnoses.

And here to tell us how we can all show our support at the Walk... is Holly Cordova. Holly, it's great to see you. Great to see you too. Thank you so much for having me on. We go back away, so I'm so happy that you're here to talk to us about all this stuff. The Michael Hoffman Foundation event is coming up, the Walk for Kids with Cancer.

It's a cornerstone event here in Santa Clarita, but for those who haven't gotten to go yet, give them a little snapshot of what it's like, and also tell us... What you have in store for participants this year. Absolutely. It is a really fun event. We've had it for several years. This year we have it at a new place.

It's at the center on Center Parkway, near the Aquatic Center. It's on May 20th. And in addition to having a really fun walk, a 5K, we have a pancake breakfast. There will be a lot of fun activities for the families. There's going to be a jump house, face painting, face painting. Games for the kids. Just a lot of fun all the way around.

The whole goal is to have the community come out and have a great time. It is one of my favorite events, and I know Dave loves getting his face painted that way. Well, you're the one that went excited, but she did say it's for the kids. Yeah, it's for the kids. Kids at heart. We'll set aside a slot for you.

Thank you very much. Like a full Spider Man.

Um, it is such a great event, but most importantly, it supports the services that the Michael Hoffman Foundation provides to families. Tell us about those services. Well, and let me tell you, I actually, my son is a cancer survivor. And so the way I first got introduced to the Michael Huffman Foundation was when he was in treatment and they reached out to us.

And I can't tell you the amazing services that they provided on a huge wide spectrum. One of the. Great things about Michael Hufflin Foundation is that they are grassroots so they can really see what the families need and respond to those needs. Um, some of the main things that they provide are grocery and gas assistance when a family is dealing with cancer and having to drive to the hospital and drive to clinic visits, um, tutoring.

Counseling services, and that's not just for the child, but for the families, the siblings who often have things that they're dealing with at the same time. Uh, we have a scholarship program. My son is now a beneficiary of one of the scholarships. Uh, and there are also times when a family just has a very specific need and they can respond to that.

So, for instance, if a family needs, um, an accessibility ramp for a wheelchair. installed in their house that can be done. It's, it's an amazing organization. We, they, the, the staff does such an amazing job. Um, really learning what the families need and what the community needs and responding to that. You know, you and I go back because Tyler was on the SCV today show with me when, when Tammy and I were doing that show and he was cooking for us and it was fantastic.

What I want to know though, because I know Michael Hoffman foundation helped you guys. Tell us about why that was so important. As a family receiving that aid and what they did for you, what did that do for you and your family? Well, I, I So many things, but let me tell you the first time that I learned about Michael Hufflin was the very first day that Tyler was diagnosed.

We were in the hospital, he had been admitted, and a social worker came with a care kit from Michael Hufflin. And it had all of the things that we didn't know that morning that we were going to need. It had gift cards to the, um, hospital cafeteria. I actually ran out of the house to the emergency room with no shoes on.

It actually had a pair of flip flops in there. Just things that we wouldn't have thought about. And a lot of, um, literature for services that we could use. That just really helped me feel from the very beginning that we weren't alone. That we had people that we could lean on. Now if you ask my son Tyler, the things that he was the most excited about were the family events.

The stay. put on a lot of parties, activities that just really brighten the kid's day. You know, they there are some times when you don't have a lot of fun in your life, and the foundation always makes sure to inject some fun in the lives of kids and their again, their siblings, the whole family. So there are a lot of.

Really fun events. And then just having the touchstone. Letty Garcia, who's at the foundation, is constantly reaching out to the families, seeing how they are and just having that emotional support is invaluable. And then honestly, just You know, there are times when families, you, you, one of your, one of the parents has to stop working so they can take care of the child full time.

And there are financial challenges and having grocery assistance every month, gas assistance every month is something that I just can't tell you how grateful we were. And all that support must make such a huge difference during such a really hard time. And you can help make an impact and help support the Michael Hoffman Foundation through Walks for Kids with Cancer.

So give us all the details. Where is it? When is it? How can people sign up? And if people just want to support the foundation, how can they do that? Absolutely. Well, it is a... It's a really fun event. I encourage everybody to come out if you can. It is on May 20th. The festivities start really early in the morning, 7 a.

m. with a pancake breakfast, but that goes to 11. So if people want to come in a little later, that is fine. The ceremony starts at 9, and that will kick off our walk. And then again, we'll be having, um, games and events after the walk. So you can really make a fun morning of it. As far as how to, how to... Um, contribute.

You can join a team. We already have. If you go on to mhf. org, um, you can find the teams that are already formed and everybody would love to have you join. You can, um, join on your own as an individual walker or you could form your own team or just make a donation. If you can't make it and you'd really just like to support, please just consider making a donation on mhf.

org. The money goes to such a great cause. Holly, it's so great to see you and I'm so glad you're here to talk about the Michael Hoffman Foundation. By the way, Tyler is? Tyler is 20 years old now. He's been cancer free for... Over 10 years and he is a college student at University of Washington. That's the best news of all.

Look at her face beaming and thinking about that. Of Tyler. So we love it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much for what you're doing with Michael Hoffman Foundation. Oh, thank you. And thank you for what you guys do. Um, letting non profits come on and share our stories. It's really wonderful.

Always happy to do it.  📍 Thank you very much. Please stay with us. We're going to be right back.