CORE Family Stories

Marco is a fine dining chef in Wyoming. His 2-year-old daughter was diagnosed with Retinoblastoma, a rare form of eye cancer, at just 7-months-old. She immediately started chemotherapy. The family lives in Northwest Wyoming and travels ten hours by car to Denver, Colorado every 4-months to have a laser procedure with the objective to shrink the tumor. The doctors say that the tumor will continue to grow but laser treatments every few months help to slow the growth. Early chemotherapy treatment caused permanent hearing loss and she now requires a hearing aid.

His family had trouble to cover their bills due to loss of work and the increased medical expenses. To provide for his family Marco has taken out multiple loans and credit cards. CORE supported the family with a grant that included one month of rent and a CORE VISA gift card to cover utilities and travel expenses for his daughters’ medical treatments.

Alejandro works at a brewery in Georgia. His 16-year-old son has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a rare and incurable neuromuscular disorder. To manage his diagnosis, Alejandro’s son requires a wheelchair, medications and various other treatments.  This has caused both emotional stress and financial strain on his family.  When making financial decisions Alejandro and his family have always budget to best make ends meet around his son’s medical necessities. When Alejandro was laid off from his beverage service job in July 2020 due to pandemic closures the sudden loss of income compounded with his son’s vital medical needs left the family financially strained.

Alejandro was referred to CORE as a resource that could provide him with financial assistance. He applied and was quickly approved for a CORE grant. Alejandro’s CORE grant covered two months of rent and utilities. Alejandro expressed that this financial support, “has been a breath of fresh air, alleviating a bit of a suffocating atmosphere.”

Kristin became disabled with both mental and physical ailments leaving her unable to work. Her husband, Scott, works as a bartender. Thanksgiving 2019 he underwent an emergency surgery leaving him in recovery for more than 3-weeks. Upon returning to work, he was let go due to his surgery.

Scott was able to find a new position as a bartender, only to have all bars/restaurants shut down due to the pandemic one month later. Additionally, Kristin’s 14-year old daughter was displaying severe mental and emotional illnesses leading to a bi-polar diagnosis. For Kristin, every day had become a struggle emotionally, physically, and financially. CORE is assisting with Kristin’s mortgage payments and granted a gift card for groceries and other supplies.

Kristin says, “I been given a blessing that for two months,  I can put aside the big financial issues and focus on my daughter who is struggling. CORE listened to with empathy, and actually made me feel for the very first time in a long time that things can and will get better. I’ll never forget when I asked if things ever get better, can I help CORE out. She said just take care and pay it forward when you can. I will pay it forward, no matter how long it takes.”

Chrisel had been diagnosed with a depression disorder by her doctor that was exacerbated by the recent pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, she was a stay at home mom during the day and a cocktail server/bartender at night. When she was told that she needed to stay home and no longer work as a result of the pandemic it sent her into a deep depression. Chrisel ended up having a mental breakdown and was taken to a hospital where she remained for five days. By the time she was released from the hospital resources such as diapers and baby wipes were scarce and money had become very tight in her household.

Chrisel says that the, “CORE grant has put [her] mind at ease. [She’s] no longer stressing about how [she is] going to make ends meet,  pay bills and provide for [her] babies.”

At age 31, Marissa was diagnosed with Cervical cancer. After an initial surgery to combat the illness she developed an infection that was severely painful left her unable to work for some time. After returning to work a tumor was discovered from a biopsy in the operation, leading to Marissa undergoing a total hysterectomy and lymph node dissection.

Her family has been barely making it month by month, as Marissa had not been able to work her usual hours since early December and has now been out of work for two months in recovery.

Marissa says that the, “CORE grant has not only removed a tremendous amount of stress and worry, but will allow me to catch up on all of my utility and other bills that I have been alternating paying portions of. We are so incredibly thankful and blessed to have this opportunity.”

Kyle was forced out of work for an extended period of time when an auto immune disease came out of remission after a decade. He had spleen removed in hopes to put the disease back in remission. During the initial diagnoses and subsequent surgery/recovery his wife missed roughly two months of work. Unfortunately, he has been hospitalized an additional six times since the surgery. Deductibles and time missed from work had piled up so they connected with CORE. Even in the midst of the COVID crisis CORE was able to come through and not only assist with our mortgage payment while we were both laid off but to help with weeks of utilities and groceries as well

Kyle says that, “CORE took a huge burden off of our shoulders during an unprecedented time of health and financial stress. Allowing us to focus on family and keeping my body trending in a healthy direction.”

Brittany and her husband both work as servers and bartenders and have 3 children under the age of 11. Brittany was recently diagnosed with 2 different strains of breast cancer. Due to the multiple strains and a deep family history of breast cancer, Brittany and her doctors decided it was best to proceed with a double mastectomy.

CORE supported the family during Brittany’s recovery from surgery by paying for rent, utilities, car insurance, and dance lessons for their oldest daughter.

Brittany told the CORE office, “I am just so thankful. It made me feel like the CORE team was giving my family a helping hand not a handout.”

Kiya works at a casual dining establishment as a bartender and is a single mom to her 13 year old daughter Jada. In the fall of 2018, Jada began having a series of seizures that became a mystery for her doctors to solve. During this time, Jada experiences dozens of seizures and multiple hospitalizations. This medical crisis prevented Kiya to work her usual full time hours while caring for her daughter.

CORE supported Jada and her mom by covering many of the family’s expenses including  rent, utilities, and car insurance. CORE also paid to keep Jada in her beloved  gymnastics classes. We are happy to report that the seizures have stopped and  Jada is doing very well.

Kiya recently told us, “We were blessed with the grant CORE provided, removing a huge burden I had been carrying for a long time. It’s more than liberating, and we are forever grateful for this blessing!”

Aaron works as a chef at the Luxo Cafe at Pixar Studios. He and his wife have two children, Adam and Nina. In late 2018, the family was devastated to learn that Adam was sick with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia at only 6 years old.

Adam’s treatment will take approximately 3 years to complete causing financial strain as Adam’s parents juggle their bills while keeping up with the demands of cancer treatment. CORE supported the family by paying for a large unexpected bill.

The Austin family came into the CORE family in the summer of 2018. Cornelius, a server at Houlihan’s in Fort Worth, Texas, had end stage renal failure and needed a kidney transplant. For almost 3 years, while he waited for a transplant, he attended dialysis 3 times a week for 4 hours.

In June of 2018 there was a complication during a simple procedure on his parathyroid that landed him in a medically induced coma for a full week. It was a scary time for the family and they weren’t sure if he was going to make it. All of this affected the Austin family in so many ways and their lives were flipped upside down while they found ways to make it all work since Cornelius had been the main provider for the family financially.

Although this was incredibly trying on the family, it also bonded them all very deeply. As Shannon told us, “We encourage each other to be open with our feelings and have learned how important we all are. Plus, my kids have gotten to see firsthand the kindness of friends, family, and strangers. We are always trying to find ways to give back all the kindness that has been shown to us and I know these lessons will stay with my kids forever.”

We met the Luna family in 2018. Damien was born with Short Bowel Syndrome and had 16 surgeries by age 2. Damien’s dad also had spinal fusion surgery around the same time as Damian’s 16th surgery. During this time, mother Gaby was the only one working while her husband recovered. She worked at Coppersmith in South Boston.

“CORE was truly a lifesaver in 2018 for our family. We had a very hard year with unexpected surgery for my son and his dad. We had no idea how we would make it through. CORE helped us thru this difficult time. We were able to not stress about our rent and utilities which just that alone was AMAZING! We got gift cards as well and the cutest teddy bear that my son Damian still loves…This is an amazing organization and it was a blessing to be able to get the help we needed. They made the process SO smooth and easy. Thank you CORE!”