Forever Our "Champ"
The Champ's Corner
In loving memory of Alex Muñoz
-Our Champ's Last Wish-
60 Game Arcade System located at Penn Medicine's Radiation Oncology Department for CHOP patients and their siblings.
Alex was always committed to helping others. He was a hospital volunteer and an extremely caring young man before he was diagnosed with brain cancer. From the very beginning of his battle with cancer, Alex asked if money raised for our family could be donated to research. Through the generosity of our community, friends, and family over $250,000 has been donated to research and children's cancer causes in Alex's name. But Alex had other hopes as well. After being told that there was nothing more that the doctors could do for him, he expressly told us that he wanted to provide adolescents and teens with things to do while "stuck in the hospital," to distract them from their discomfort and situation. Spending long periods of time in a children's hospital is never easy, but being a teen can be especially challenging in its own unique ways. This fund will provide grants to the Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia for specific "wish list" items. Our hope is to help teens, adolescents, and young adults in local hospitals as well. Because Alex cared so much for the other children and teens he saw suffering in the cancer community, we will also be contributing funds that help support families of children afflicted with cancer and supporting groundbreaking research as well. The AMMF is partnered with The Princeton Area Community Foundation (PACF), which is a 501(C)(3) non-profit charity and has earned a 4 out of 4 star rating on Charity Navigator, America's largest independent charity evaluator. All donations are tax deductible. We are proud to report that through this partnership, The PACF was recently named one of the TOP 10 Community Foundations on Charity Navigator! 100% of donations will directly benefit these deserving children and families, as well as a scholarship fund to benefit an outstanding high school college-bound senior each year. This is Alex's last wish and our joy to carry out in his cherished memory.
We have loved collecting items from our Teen Wish List. We will provide an update for collections as hospitals have updated their policies post-COVID.
Please join us in helping to
lift the hearts of these special warriors.
When Alex was 15, we discovered that he had a brain tumor. Cancer. The prognosis was quite good, and although his battle was very difficult with weeks and months at a time in the hospital, we thrived on hope.
One year later, a week before his final chemotherapy treatment, Alex’s cancer returned. He passed away just nine days before his 17th birthday, in November. And so each November, we aspire to help Alex fulfill his last wish.
The hospitals that we are partnered with are not for profit, and a childhood cancer diagnosis can place devastating burdens on a family's finances and well being.
Please consider making a donation which will go directly toward the Alex Muñoz Teen Cancer Fund, the first of its kind, established at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, and the Adolescent and Young Adult Fund at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
When you donate through Alex's charity, every penny that you donate goes directly into these funds. Normally, when you donate through a charity, there are administrative fees. Our family pays for those. If you donate directly to a hospital, the donations also go to administrative fees first. Here, we have agreements with the hospitals that these funds go directly to help the children that we serve,
Our teen cancer initiatives have provided these children and their families with meals, Lyft and Uber rides to the hospital, emergency relief for oncology families, clothing, pajamas, and blankets. We have provided CHOP with an arcade system in the radiation unit as well as Monmouth Medical Center in their infusion room, a large screen TV on the third floor of CHOP where all of the childhood cancer patients are admitted, rolling game systems such as Xbox and Playstation complete with their own TV and games, and iPads. We have also provided thousands of your gift items such as teen pajamas, blankets, headphones, Legos, puzzles, adult coloring books, board games, Netflix gift cards, and so much more...
But most of all, these gifts let them know that they are not alone.
Please join us by making your tax deductible contribution here:
Alex had only one dying wish: "help teens fighting cancer in the hospital."
Thank you, with all of our love and gratitude!
Please click the links below to see why families facing childhood cancer have unique financial burdens.
ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/jop.2014.001495
www.forbes.com/sites/lizfrazierpeck/2017/12/30/the-financial-impact-of-childhood-cancer-on-families-and-where-to-find-help/?sh=6571ef835cd2
Our Teen Wish List!
We have dropped off Tens of
THOUSANDS of gifts to
hospitals that support
teens and children with cancer thanks to your generosity!
The Alexander Muñoz Memorial Scholarship
This scholarship will be presented to a deserving Shore Regional High School senior on an annual basis by the Muñoz family as an ongoing symbol of our deep appreciation for the love and support of our community throughout Alex's illness.
Congratulations to our 2020 $5,000 Alexander Muñoz Memorial Scholarship recipient,
Jenna McCarthy!
Jenna is attending the University Of Georgia.
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In the News:
The Alexander Muñoz Memorial Fund is delighted to announce that we have made our deliveries of Teen Wish List gifts to CHOP and the Valerie Center at the Unterberg Children's Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center, and K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital at Jersey Shore University Medical Center just in time for the holidays. These gifts include hundreds of items including new release DVDs, new video games, Kindles, blankets, pajamas, knit hats and baseball caps, sports memorabilia and apparel, hundreds of dollars in gift cards, arts and crafts, bath and beauty products, board games, and more, We were also able to donate five electric guitars, an amplifier, and music accessories to CHOP and the Valerie Center's music therapy program through the generosity of our donors. Our donations have gone toward an Oncology Electronics Fund in order to purchase items such as laptops, Apple iPads with hospital infection control, and game system carts which include Xboxes, Playstations, televisions, controllers, and video games. We have provided funding for a large screen TV to be placed in the teen section of the inpatient oncology floor play area. Funding also goes to a fund to provide Netflix and iTunes gift cards for this population of patients and a portable DVD player funding program. We have also donated a brand new, custom-made, state of the art, 60 game arcade machine for the Radiation Oncology waiting area at Penn Medicine for CHOP patients. We have also installed the same machine at the Valerie Center at the Unterberg Children's Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center in NJ. A portion of our donation also goes toward the Social Work Emergency Oncology Fund which will helps to support struggling families with travel, medication, meal, and household expenses. It is our hope to lift the hearts of these warriors and their families while they are going through the unthinkable. We have a new partner,: The Ronald McDonald House of Philadelphia! The Champ's Corner just made a recent donation to support a week's worth of meals and nutritious snacks for the 150-200 families who are staying there as their children are treated at nearby hospitals for critical and chronic illnesses. We have also made donations to research at CHOP and their Center for Data Driven Discovery in Biomedicine, part of the Cancer "Moonshot Initiative." Along with $30,000 we have provided in scholarships, our fund has given out grants totaling almost $160,000. Thank you to our donors, volunteers, and supporters for creating countless smiles and for helping us to fulfill our Champ's wish! |
Delivering our Teen Wish List gifts to CHOP and the Valerie Fund
Fabrizio and Laura Muñoz with Dr. Adam Resnick, the Director of the Center for Data Driven Discovery in Biomedicine at CHOP.
William Muñoz with Susan Dulczak, PNP and Director of the Valerie Fund at the Unterberg Children's Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center
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The 2016 NYC Triathlon
Alex's 52 year old dad, Fabrizio, completed not only his first triathlon, but his first endurance event. He did it for kids fighting cancer. We were so honored to have our story featured in the official NY City Triathlon broadcast which was televised nationwide. We encourage you to watch the entire telecast to witness other stories that are so inspiring and uplifting. Fab's journey is interspersed throughout the show, but most notably he is first seen training at time stamp 14:09, the bulk of our interview is at 27:25, and he crosses that long sought after finish line with Alex's mass card held tightly at 43:38. The AMMF is extremely proud to be Official Charity Partners, once again, for the 2017 NY City Tri.
Alex's 52 year old dad, Fabrizio, completed not only his first triathlon, but his first endurance event. He did it for kids fighting cancer. We were so honored to have our story featured in the official NY City Triathlon broadcast which was televised nationwide. We encourage you to watch the entire telecast to witness other stories that are so inspiring and uplifting. Fab's journey is interspersed throughout the show, but most notably he is first seen training at time stamp 14:09, the bulk of our interview is at 27:25, and he crosses that long sought after finish line with Alex's mass card held tightly at 43:38. The AMMF is extremely proud to be Official Charity Partners, once again, for the 2017 NY City Tri.
