I'm Whitney Crumley, and I am the founder.. We started cancer first after the death of my best friend Karen passed away in 2015, and we started this in 2016.

She always had her treatments on Tuesday.

And so one Tuesday I was sitting with her and she was hungry.

And so I ran to a local place in town that she loves, and I ordered her food and they asked if it was for her and they said, it's on us.

And so I took it back to the hospital and I gave it to her and I told her and she said, it's a cancer work.

And I was like, What's a cancer?

And she was like, Well, there's not a lot.

I mean, cancer sucks and there's a lot of people think ther.. but you start to see people's goodness and their kindness come through in those little things.

It was as little as a $5 dinner or a $5 lunch, but that was their one way of giving back.

And those were the things that she talked about and she named them.

And so whenever it came time to give this organization a name that just stuck in my mind.

My name is Kelsey Morris.

And.

I am the director.

I took over as director from Whitney in January of 2023.

I learned so much not only from being the director of a nonprofit, but also I'm just kind of a person.

I always will tell people I have a passion for people.

I love helping.

I love just being a part of people's lives.

Whenever this opportunity came available, I felt that pull of that passion for people that I wanted to be involved again.

When we first started eight years ago, we focus on Bothell only because that's where Karen was receiving treatment, and within six months we expanded our service area to Marshall and Fitzgibbon Hospital.

When you were first diagnosed and you were at that initial appointment, you've been told you have cancer and you go to the oncologist at one of our two hospitals, you'll receive a cancer berk's bag and that bag I like to call that bag our handshake.

It's our introduction.

A lot of the times that they're not familiar with our organization is the first time they're hearing .. and that is filled with 9 to 12 items that are hopefully making their time in cancer and treatment easier or mor..

They're not going to cure cancer.

There's nothing in there that's life changing, but it's just kind of our way of saying, hey, somebody in your local community cares about you and we're offering you this as just a way to say that we're here.

Everyone gets those no matter what.

When you are told you have cancer, whether you choose to stay in Sedalia or Marshall or not, you still get that bag.

And then from there, we offer our cancer free resources.

Cancer Parks Resources has two parts.

The first part is our gas mileage reimbursement program.

We currently offer gas mileage reimbursement at $0.25 a mile, up to $500 per patient per calendar year.

And then the other part of the cancer resources is anything that a patient deems a need.

If if that need is help with their gas utilities, prescription medication, custom wigs.

We've even paid for a plane ticket back when we originally started so that a stage four patient could say goodbye to a loved one.

We always say if it's important to them, it's important to us.

And there has been very few things that we have turned down as far as that.

I have just yesterday met someone here at the office to give them a check because they were afraid they weren't going to have it in ti.. And she said, So it's probably not often that you meet the people that you're helping and really it happens more o.. And I personally love that it's not always at the most convenient times, but that cancer never happens at a convenient time.

So I never mind having to go out and meet someone in a grocery store parking lot and hand them a check or a gas card or whatever it is in that moment that they need everything that we have comes from the community.

So it's important to have that community involvement.

The best way to get involved with our organization is to fill out the volunteer form on our website.

It goes to our email and then we will send out a mass email if we ever need volunteers for things.

You have your big famous Cancer Foundation's and they have a presence here.

But when you ask the hospitals, what are those foundations actually doing for our local patients, the answer is nothing.

I don't think people realize when they give their money to some of these big organizations that that money is going somewhere, but it's not going to help your neighbor.

And I wanted this nonprofit to be different.

And it is.

And so we're very proud of that.

For the last seven years, we have had a big fashion fundraiser in the fall.

We call it Rock the Runway.

And it's a little different than other fashion shows because every single one of the models is a local cancer patient.

They are someone who is either currently fighting cancer, they've already beat cancer, or they have lost a loved one, an immediate loved one to cancer in our area, Once they walk the runway, they come back and they wear a cancer park shirt and they hold up a sign.

And that sign is telling their why.

It'll say, I'm a current fighter or I've been in remission for 63 years, whatever it may be.

And and they walk out to the fight song and it's just it's an emotional and special event.

Even if we hadn't started the nonprofit, I would have thought about her every day.

But now I think about her in other ways.

And I get to see her, her silhouette on our logo and see every single person that she has had some impact on.

She is my best friend of many years.

I met her when I was 16.

So to not have that has just changed my life.

I am not the same person I was eight years ago and I probably never will be.

But it changed my life in some ways for the better and in some ways for not.

And so this organization is one thing that my heart's into 100%.

It's my fourth child.

It's my it's my baby.

And so.

Yeah, it.

It means a lot to me and just does.

We are located in Sedalia, Missouri, and we serve Pettis Insul.. To get in touch with us, you can reach out to info at Canterbury.

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