Volunteers of Ocean City Cape Atlantic Chapter helping make local children’s dreams come true
OCEAN CITY — The All-Volunteer Ocean City Cape Atlantic Chapter of the Sunshine Foundation is most visible in September when it hosts its major golf fundraiser at Greate Bay Country Club, but the organization works quietly throughout the year to find children who deserve a dream come true in their lives.
The Sunshine Foundation chapter gets support from the surrounding communities and then turns around to help children ages 3 to 18. These children have severe or profound physical/developmental/intellectual challenges or trauma from physical/sexual abuse, or life-long conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy, severe level 3 autism, Down syndrome, hydrocephalus, severe epilepsy, Sickle Cell Disease, blindness and deafness.
The Sunshine Foundation seeks out those children — whose families have limited income and may be turned away from other national wish-granting organizations because they don’t have a life-threatening or critical diagnosis — and then they make their dreams come true.
Since 1995, support from the golf tournament alone has sent more than 100 children and their families to Disney World, SeaWorld, Universal Studios, LEGOLAND Florida and the Sunshine Foundation Dream Village in central Florida.
The Sunshine Foundation has also met dreams that include shopping sprees, computers, meeting celebrities and providing special needs equipment.
Some of the proceeds from the 28th annual Sunshine Golf Classic, sponsored by the Messier Foundation on Sept. 11, went to brightening the lives of Gianna Vasquez and Phillip McGee, to send one on an ocean cruise and the other to the Kalahari Waterpark.
According to the local chapter, Gianna has cerebral palsy and severe level 3 autism. Phillip also has severe level 3 autism and has Skraban-Deardoff syndrome, a rare genetic disorder typically caused by changes in the WDR26 gene and characterized by developmental delay, intellectual disability, seizures, neurological differences and subtle facial differences.
“I can’t describe the words you feel, seeing you can actually make a change with these children just by granting a dream,” chapter President Cathy DiMarco said. “What’s simple for us is huge for them. We all were teary-eyed when we granted a dream at the golf outing.
“Gianna’s family has never been on vacation. Their dream was just to go on vacation,” she said.
The special Autism on the Seas family cruise is for children such as Gianna.
“It’s also going to be a nice treat for the mother, too,” DiMarco said. “She’s going to get support that week. Everything is set up to help those physically challenged kids.”
As Gianna told the chapter, she wanted to go on the cruise because she had never been on one before.
“I want to know what it’s like to be away on vacation and be happy,” she said.
Phillip wanted to go on the daily trip to the water park, he told the chapter, because “I love to play in water and Kalahari has a small kids water area where I can play safely.”
Although trips and vacations are popular among Sunshine Foundation’s children, DiMarco said the dreams run the gamut from large to small.
“What’s really amazing is some people just ask for things you and I take for granted,” she said. “One person wanted a porch covering … because they couldn’t spend time outside without it. Some ask for something very simple, such as an iPad. There are also some things insurance doesn’t pay for. You would be surprised — things considered a luxury.”
A wheelchair-bound child wanted an adaptive device for a swing.
“One kid just wanted to swing like everyone else did. It was a device that could actually swing a wheelchair,” DiMarco said. Another wanted a special tricycle.
The chapter president has been part of the Ocean City Cape Atlantic Chapter of the Sunshine Foundation for about nine years.
“I got involved because — and it’s probably the same as other people — I grew up with parents who were always involved with the community so it kind of trickles down to you. I am involved in a lot of other things.
“I am registered nurse. I just really enjoy helping people with anything,” DiMarco said. “That’s why I help my husband with spaghetti dinners in town.”
There are just seven or eight members in the local chapter.
“It’s small but we do large things,” she said.
Those few volunteers work hard behind the scenes to prepare for the big fundraiser and to find the children in need.
“We actually start working months in advance to make the golf outing such a wonderful event,” DiMarco said.
The all-volunteer chapter goes into the local communities to solicit sponsors, gifts for raffles and the silent auction and donations.
“We couldn’t do this without the local community. They really make the golf outing what it is … it’s pretty awesome.”
Those who take part in the golf outing show their generosity in other ways as well.
The person who won the 50/50 at the raffle was told they couldn’t just donate the money back to the Sunshine Foundation, but they weren’t deterred.
“They insisted on giving the family the (money) they won. They turned around and said, “Give it to the family when they go on vacation.’ That’s how awesome our community is,” DiMarco said.
“Businesses, families, friends — everyone comes together for such a good cause. Their donations are huge,” she added.
DiMarco noted the golf event “is so emotional because we have the children who are receiving their dreams. They bring the child up and present their dream and a big stuffed animal. People are very emotional when they see who it is they’re helping,” she said.
While months are spent planning and organizing the golf outing, DiMarco said the chapter is always looking for children in need.
“Our biggest thing is not looking for volunteers. We try to find local kids who need the help,” she said, noting the requirements about the illness or physical challenges along with family income no more than $75,000 a year. (That is a requirement from the national Sunshine Foundation.)
DiMarco said they have been reaching out to schools to help find children in need to get them referred to the Sunshine Foundation. Once the family is contacted, a parent has to go online to note what type of condition the child has, get a doctor’s signature to confirm the condition and to provide financial information.
While that may not seem like a lot of qualifications, DiMarco explained it can be a lot for the parents — often a single parent — who are already fully occupied between work and the extra care needed for their child.
Funding local dreams first
“We work hard to find local children that can be referred,” DiMarco said. “Let’s say we have five or six kids, we grant them their dreams right away. When we started our local chapter we said this is local so we want to grant dreams to our local children first,” she said. DiMarco added the chapter “always felt that because (support) is coming from the local community so we want to grant it to our local children first. It’s the local people giving.
“That’s why we’re called the All-Volunteer Ocean City Cape Atlantic Chapter,” she said.
This year they are providing dreams to the two children — Gianna and Phillip — but others are in process.
Excess funds that aren’t spent locally go to the national Sunshine Foundation to help other children see their dreams come true.
The Sunshine Foundation was founded by Philadelphia police officer Bill Sample, who in the 1960s was assigned to a children’s hospital, where he saw how families were burdened by medical bills and frustrated because they couldn’t offer that big dream to their children, according to the organization.
With the help of others, Sample was able to provide the first dream for a boy who wanted to play in the snow. That was in 1976. With support, Sample founded the Sunshine Foundation to grant other wishes.
Donate to the Sunshine Foundation
To get in touch with the All-Volunteer Ocean City Cape Atlantic Chapter of the Sunshine Foundation, contact DiMarco via email (waves7@comcast.net) or by phone at (484) 433-2798.
To donate make a check out to Sunshine Foundation and mail it to PO Box 866, Ocean City, NJ 08226.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff