Run a Food Drive

Help us feed our families! Our Food Pantry shelves need to be filled and continually replenished.  Have a food drive for us at your home, place of work, school, local community organization or supermarket.

Host or Plan a Fundraising Event

Every year families and organizations hold fundraising events of all kinds to raise money for ECF. These can be athletic events, holiday vendor bazaars, garage sales, small get-togethers with friends, moms-night-outs…anything you can dream up!

Adopt a Family During the Holidays

During the holiday season every ECF family member writes a “wish list” of gifts, and ECF volunteers can adopt a family and fulfill their wishes.

Be an Ambassador for ECF

Volunteers can also serve as spokespeople, introducing ECF to schools, churches, civic/community groups and corporate/business leaders. They can make presentations at service organizations and rotary clubs, help us with corporate connections and bring our brochures to their local pediatrician’s office, library or school to let families in need know that we are a resource for them.

Assemble Birthday Bags and Other Donations

• Birthday bags: Every ECF child receives a “Birthday Bag” on their birthdays, filled with everything needed for an in home birthday party—candles, hats, plates, napkins, party favors, etc.—so important when ill kids and their families are too overwhelmed or not feeling well enough to go out and celebrate.
• Bereavement baskets: We are increasing our services to grieving families and have recently launched a statewide program to deliver “bereavement baskets” of soothing and helpful items individually tailored to a family’s particular needs.
• Guardian Angel Bags: Though it is common for our kids to have planned hospital stays, oftentimes unplanned emergencies arise, meaning they suddenly need to get to the hospital as soon as possible. This results in a frantic throwing together of things in a bag while frightened and stressed. Volunteers help assemble ready-to-grab bags filled with various items to make a child’s hospital stay more comfortable and homey.
• Holiday meal baskets complete with all the fixings for a feast that a family might be unable to afford due to the financial strain caused by a cancer diagnosis.

There are many other fundraising ideas! We are always impressed by the creative ways our volunteers raise money to support our mission each year:

• Restaurant or fast food gift certificate collection
• Coin drive at schools or offices.
• Ticket collection for movies, sporting events, plays, amusement parks, museums, etc.
• Surgical supply store gift certificates collection
• Area hospital parking coupons collection
• Hair cut gift certificates collection
• Gasoline or oil change vouchers collection
• New snow suit drive
• New sneaker or gift certificate drive
• Back pack and school supplies drive
• Create letters for the holidays (Santa, Elves, Easter bunny)
• Collect gently used electronics (gaming systems, video games, ipod/ipads) for children stuck at home