The Stephen T. Marchello Scholarship Foundation

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Impact Statement

Our accomplishments for the past year include the following: (1) Reaching the milestone of giving over $150,000 in college scholarships to survivors of childhood cancer during our ten years of existence. (2) During our ten years of existence, we reached an additional milestone of giving scholarships to a total of thirty-eight high school graduates from thirty high school in CO who are survivors of childhood cancer. (3) We gave $7,500 in scholarships to survivors of childhood cancer in 2009.

Needs Statement

Our needs include the following: (1) To raise enough funds to give college scholarships to all of the cancer survivors who apply for our scholarship. We average twenty applications each year. (2) We need to expand the awareness about our program. (3) We need to increase the number of corporate sponsors that contribute to our program. (4) We need to develop new and creative fundraisers to increase the individual basis of our support. (5) We need to obtain a celebrity type spokesperson.

Background Statement

We were incorporated in the state of Colorado on March 11, 1999. The Stephen T. Marchello Scholarship Foundation was started in memory of Steve Marchello, who passed away from cancer on January 16, 1999. We have first hand experience on how cancer affects a family. When child gets cancer, it affects the entire family emotionally, physically. and financially. Our scholarship program helps the entire family as it gives them financial support and helps a cancer survivors further their education

Executive Director Statement

Even good insurance does not pay for everything and cancer treatment is very expensive. Many procedures are not covered by insurance. For example, one of our applicants had cancer in their jaw. The insurance did not pay for plastic surgery to reconstruct their jaw because they said it was cosmetic. The treatment for cancer can last from six months to three years. The out of pocket cost for a year of treatment can range from $1,700 to over $12,000. It is even more expensive when the person has some type of bone cancer and major surgeries are needed. After the treatments are finished, there are follow up surgeries and physical rehabilitation. In addition, the patient usually needs to have check ups that may occur yearly for the rest of their lives.

According the National Center for Educational Statistics, 63% of all students in four-year public colleges do not have the funds needed to cover the tuition and other expenses. If federal and state education loans are factored in, 45% of students still cannot meet these costs. Because for many of our applicants the family is still paying off medical bills for cancer treatment, these percentages are probably higher. Some of our scholarship recipients would not be able to afford college without our financial assistance.

Often,one of the parents may need to put their job and career on hold in order to spend the time necessary to help their child through treatment. Many of our applicants live in smaller communities and need to travel to a major metropolitan area for treatment. This requires the parent to take time off from work and includes the extra cost of travel, meals, and lodging.

We have listed on our website all of the other organizations that we could find that also give financial help to cancer survivors. We have become a national source of information about scholarships for cancer survivors. If you call the American Cancer society or Lance Armstrong Foundation, they will refer you to us.

Board Chair/President Statement

The major challenges we face is name recognition and having to compete against three of the largest and most influential non-profit organizations, the American Cancer Foundation, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and the Leukemia Foundation. We have had people contact us and say they would see if their company would support us and the company has contacted us and said they already support another cancer organization, so they can't support us. Finally, many organizations do not give to non-profits that give to individuals or that give scholarships.

We also do not have a prominent person associated with us that would help us obtain people who would make large donations or make big bids when we have a silent auction at our fundraisers.

We are expanding our fundraising efforts by changing both the location and type of fundraiser event. Instead of a dinner, we have tried a wine tasting event. We are adding new board members who have contacts with people that we have not attracted to our fundraisers in the past. We have added a wider variety of items to our silent auction.

We also have not been able to get any type of corporate sponsorship for our fundraisers. We are working on that and have several that make a donation, but have not committed to being a sponsor.

July 2009
I just graduated from the University of Colorado (Boulder) with my degree in Molecular Biology in May of this year. Shortly after, I got hired as a Professional Research Assistant in the biology department here at CU. This has been keeping me really busy but I couldn't be more happy with where I am now. I'm gaining valuable experience that will prepare me for graduate school in the near future. It's so exciting to know that I'm one step closer to my goal of becoming a professor of cancer biology and that I'm continuing to take steps in that direction.
On a personal note, I took some time off this summer for a vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Overall, life is great right now. I'm happy and healthy,

I'm a faculty member at a prestigious research university, and I'm living my dream. I've decided that I'm not just going to be a survivor anymore, I'm going to thrive. Thank you all so much for your support and helping to make my hopes and aspirations into reality.

Let me know if you'd like me to make any changes or if there's anything else I can do for the foundation.

Grant Weaver
Research Assistant
Xue Lab
MCD Biology
University of Colorado
347 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309
303-492-0156