Luminary Dedication Event to Honor Isabella’s Sweet Sixteen While Benefiting Childhood Cancer

ISF Newsletter, January 2021 (Don’t receive our newsletter in your inbox, sign up here)

Executive Director Update

“Isabella’s birthday is always a tough day for me because I feel like it’s that one day that is just about her and I.  And even after all of these years, I find myself struggling to pull it together when the day arrives.  Just last year, I drove all the way down to give blood, only to sit in the car – crying. I turned around, went home, and got in my bed. That is the reality of grief. It always lingers in the background and at certain times of the year, it hits with a hard gut punch.

Every year we host events around her birthday and honestly, at times it’s hard to pull myself together for this specific day. When I realized this year should have been her ‘Sweet Sixteen’ and in-person events would not be possible, I had a small sense of relief that I would be able to have some privacy to think about my daughter.  But, I still wanted us to create something meaningful in her honor. After some brainstorming, we landed on what we felt was a beautiful solution.  A luminary event in her honor, just footsteps away from where we go to remember her.”

This year, ISF is hosting a luminary dedication event called “Star Light. Star Bright.”.  It will take place the evening of Isabella’s 16th birthday at Calvary Church… a place she knew as her home and where she is also laid to rest.  This is also the place she attended preschool and met the people who helped shape her into the amazing, kind, and giving little girl we all knew her to be.  

Although this has to be a private event, we want this evening to be about your loved ones too. We hope you will want to participate on this special night by purchasing luminaries in honor of Isabella or anyone you know who is fighting for a cure or that you simply want to celebrate and pay tribute to.  Learn more how you can participate and make a luminary dedication donation.

We also have family sponsorships set aside for those of you who want to make a greater impact and/or become part of our Three Wish Society in her honor, for this bittersweet year.

Because it would have been Isabella’s sweet sixteen, we reached out to the auto community in hopes they wanted to be involved.  Just this past week, we have seen an outpouring of support from Charlotte area auto dealers to help make this event a success.  To them, this isn’t about car sales they hope to benefit from – but about coming together as a community and honoring a little girl who is making a difference in our city and beyond.  The proceeds raised from this event will help fund a new clinical trial for kids with relapsed Neuroblastoma and it will be developed right here in Charlotte.  If Isabella had just a few more years, it would have been trials like this that would have saved her life.  I can’t think of a better way to honor her on this special occasion, by doing what she did best – paying it forward in her own quiet way.  Thank you to  Lake Norman Chrysler|Dodge|Jeep|Ram & Scott Clark Auto Group for quickly stepping up as co-presenting sponsors.

So… prepare yourself for a beautiful night as we celebrate my daughter, on what should have been her Sweet Sixteen. We can’t wait to see the front lawn of this beautiful location lit up to honor her, but also in honor of all the ones you love.

-Erin, Isabella’s Mommy  

Digital Impact Update | February 4, 2021

In honor of World Cancer Day on February 4th, join us on a 30-minute Zoom Video to meet Dr. Sholler & Dr. Oesterheld, two pediatric oncologists who are making waves together in the pediatric cancer research community.  Dr. Sholler and Dr. Oesterheld will give an update on the ISF Rare and Solid Tumor Program at Levine Children’s as well as details around the neuroblastoma clinical trial we are supporting from the proceeds raised by our Star Light. Star Bright. Luminary Dedication Event.  We hope you will register to join us. REGISTER To Join