August 2001
A $5,000 grant was given in August 2001 to Kelly Conlon a 14-year old student at Stoneham Middle School who is in need of a life-saving double lung transplant. Despite insurance, the costs associated with Kelly's lung transplant and post-op care are staggering. Kelly"s Guardian Angels are Connie and and Brian Spellman also from Stoneham, Mass.
October 6, 2001
“The Weber Foundation of Helping Hands Inc.” sponsored and held it's first annual “Bike for Life” around picturesque Sebago Lake in Maine.
The event was a huge success! We had over 100 participants and raised approximately $20,000. In addition, a group of Independent business owners, Market America UnFranchise Owners, from Wisconsin donated $5 from every admission ticket to one of their regional business training events. Their donation totaled $5,525 and, when added to the other funds raised by the "Bike for Life, brought the total amount raised to over $25,000. Everyone involved made it possible for us to give several large grants. One for a total of $10,000 went to a little nine-year-old girl, Bryanna Bryce from Limerick, Maine. She needs a kidney transplant. We gave her a small grant already, but the family needs quite a bit of money for the father to take off work for 3 months to have surgery himself to supply his daughter with his kidney. He is self-employed, with no insurance and has four other children at home.
In addition, $6,000 was donated to The New York Police Department, Emergency Services Unit - Bomb Squad Relief Fund, in memory of two brothers, Peter and Tommy Langone, one an NYPD ESU Police officer and the other an NYFD Firefighter, who were both lost in the September 11th tragedy.
More Information about Peter and Tommy Langone, the two brothers who grew up to be a NYPD cop and a NYFD firefighter, and who perished in the destruction and devastation of the World Trade Center attack: New York Newsday article re: Peter & Tommy Langone, September 18, 2001 by Eden Laikin, Staff Writer
Picture at Left from L to R: NYPD Emergency Services Unit, Sergeant John Lambkin, Phil Guido, NYPD Sgt. John Jorhden
Another $9,000 went to New York Fire Department Engine Company 217 in Brooklyn who lost their Fire Chief, Lt. Ken Phelan, and two of their firefighters, Steven Coakley and Neal Leavy, to the Twin Tower Disaster. This grant will help those families at a very devastating time.
More Information:
An article by Matt Lucas about his visit to Engine Co. 217 in Bedford Styvesant, Brooklyn; the firefighters he met, the lives they lead, and the men they lost
Image at left: Matt Lucas (center) with the members of the New York City Fire Department, Engine Company 217, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Additional Grants Issued:
04/14/2001 Grant: $1,000 Mr.&Mrs. J. Phillion, Melrose, Ma. (house fire)
05/16/2001 Grant: $500 Jason Dedrick, E. -Lou Gehrig's Disease
05/24/2001 Grant: $200 McHugh Family Education Fund
07/02/2001 Grant: $5,000 Bobby Terry, suffering with a brain tumor
07/03/2001Grant: $2,000 Conley family of 8, (house fire)
07/16/2001 Grant: $2,000 Catherson family (house fire)
08/21/2001 Grant: $250 Bud Ochsner, Ottowa, Illinois
08/21/2001 Grant: $500 Richard Goldstein, Hull, Ma.
08/21/2001 Grant: $250 St. Francis House of Boston, Ma.
09/20/2001 Grant: $1,000 Ginny Rojas, Lynnfield, Ma. (house fire)
12/05/2001 Grant: $2,000 Kimberly McKay, suffering w/ stage 4 lung cancer
12/13/2001 Grant: $2,500 Desiree Lambert, paralyzed from an auto accident