Grants for Families Facing Colorectal Cancer
The Kimberly Fund gives children impacted by colorectal cancer a chance to put cancer aside, even for just a moment, and be a kid again.
The Fund awards two kinds of grants:
Applications are open from August – September each year. Recipients will be notified in October.
Kimberly Fund grants are available to families or children (ages 0-18) who have been impacted by a parent or primary caregiver being diagnosed with or passing away from colorectal cancer.
Funds will be awarded for experiences; the Fund does not cover living expenses or medical bills.
About Kim
Kimberly Troisi-Paton was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in May 2005 at age 41. For more than five years, Kim was bloated, fatigued, anemic, and had sporadic rectal bleeding, but her doctors told her it was nothing serious. When her OB/GYN suggested taking anti-depressants, Kim took matters into her own hands.
A former boss had talked openly about getting his colonoscopy, so after doing some research, Kim demanded one for herself. She was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer and had surgery and chemotherapy.
About the Fund
The Kimberly Fund was established by Kim’s family and friends as a way to honor her memory. The Fund was created to give children whose parent is facing colorectal cancer or passed away from colorectal cancer a chance to put cancer aside, even for just a moment, and be a kid again.
Originally established in partnership with The Colon Club, the Kimberly Fund became part of Fight CRC when the two organizations merged in 2023. Fight CRC continues to honor Kim’s legacy and distribute grants each year.
100% of all donations made to the Kimberly Fund will be restricted and applied toward Kimberly Fund grants.
Kimberly Fund Stories
Moments of Joy Made Possible by You
The Gershenson-Gates Family
Our little family wanted to send along a gigantic thank you for helping us realize our goal of making our basement into an amazing climbing gym for our son, Henry.
Justin, Henry’s dad, has continued working hard over the last couple of months to transform the once hospital green, gray, and dusty storage area in our basement into an elaborate and magical place in which Henry and his friends can play.
With COVID-19 precautions in place, distance learning, a brutally dark winter, and with stage IV survivor mom, Rachel, starting up chemo again (now indefinitely), we’ve been stuck indoors much of the time. This area has provided Henry and his pals a place to climb, run, jump, and best of all, be normal kids in an abnormal time. It has given us all smiles as we navigate new ways to play and enjoy our home. The basement is now a destination for fun and discovery, and every single time we are there, we can only think of all of you and your wonderful work that made this all possible.
Lucas’ Story
Sometimes really good things can come out of cancer. Since Lucas has been asking over the last year and a half to “redo” his room, we thought this could be the perfect opportunity. An added bonus was that Christian agreed to give Lucas his room (which Lucas has been eyeing up due to its larger size!) Over the last few weeks, Lucas and I have been shopping together like kids in a candy store. The biggest ticket item on his list was a full/queen sized bed. I told him that could easily eat away his budget, but we looked nonetheless. We hit gold a few weeks ago when we stumbled upon a Mattress Warehouse store that was consolidating its inventory and had everything marked down 90%!! We purchased a queen sized Tempur-Pedic mattress (normally $2700.00) for $270.00. The box spring set us back an extra $20.00. Lucas was thrilled! He kept saying, “Mom, it’s a good thing we went in that store!”
Over the last few weeks, we hit up all my favorite stores… Home Goods, TJ Maxx, World Market. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as Lucas would come home from school some days and say, “Mom, can we go look for pillows and art tonight?” We both benefited from the diversion and loved the time together. We talked a lot, and I gave him a few tutorials in color, scale, and accessorizing. If the day comes when I can get back into decorating mode, I’m pretty sure I’ve found my perfect wingman! Lucas has a good eye!
We still have a few things to do, but for the most part we have transformed the space. Lucas LOVES his new bed and can’t get enough of the high-end mattress! The first night we laid together in the dark in his new room he said, “Mom, if you could see my smile right now, it stretches all the way to my earlobes!
