To mark my Bar Mitzvah, I am running a book drive for the Tomorrow’s Children’s Fund, part of Hackensack University Medical Center.  Children (newborn to teen) who have cancer are treated there. Some children stay for a few hours every couple of weeks; others stay for as long as 6 weeks at a time. 

The Tomorrows Children’s Fund helps children with cancer and serious blood disorders. TCF provides a warm, healthy and loving environment for children in treatment.  TCF tries to make the kids feel at home, and helps them not to be scared of their treatments. Their Pediatric Center for Tomorrows Children has rooms for kids who are sick to play games, do arts and crafts, and read. There is also a schoolroom, where kids who are missing a lot of school go to catch up on the things that they are missing. TCF also provides a full scope of services to relieve families’ emotional and financial stress; the very best possible medical care; and funding for research on these diseases.

I know that books help you to escape into a world of fantasy, helping you to forget why you are in the hospital and that you are sick.  That is what kids with cancer need: to forget their problems and their illness by losing themselves in a world of fantasy.   My goal is to collect at least 1000 books.    Please help if you can!  You can send book donations to the address below.  To help even more, order your books through Amazon.com at this link (or the link on our Wish List) -- Amazon will contribute a percentage of all book sales in the form of gift cards that I will use to purchase additional books for TCF.

I’ll keep updating you with status on my project on my blog.  If you have any comments or suggestions, or would like more information on how to help,  please let me know!  Even though my Bar Mitzvah has passed, the book drive continues!  It’s never too late to help!