Gracey's Harvest of Hope - September 30, 2019

We're excited to announce that Gracey's Harvest of Hope will be on September 30th in Crestview Circle from 5:30-8 pm. The proceeds from this year's event will help provide scholarships for inner city youth. Many of these kids would like to pursue a higher education, but lack the financial support to achieve it. Your donations and support will help these young adults achieve their academic goals. 

We have additional service opportunities during this year's event for you and your family to participate. There is a need for school supplies among the refugee community and we have already obtained the supplies, but we need your help to put them together. 

We'll also have birthday packages that will need to be assembled and will be passed along to food bank patrons. 

The sweet treat area will provide yummy goodies and the Wasatch Deli Food Truck can take of your hunger needs and Thirst for your beverages.

The silent auction has some fantastic items already. We'll be posting more details soon. 

We hope you can join us for a night of food, fun, and service. 

Thanks, 

Gracey's Harvest of Hope

Gracey's Harvest of Hope 2018 - 5k and Fun Run

This year we're doing something new!!!! We'll have the first year of the 5k SuperHeroes/Costume Race and Fun Run on September 22nd at 7:30 -  11 am at Donner Park located at 2770 East 990 South just east of Hogle Zoo. We'll have sign up information soon. 

We invite you to join us for the 7th year of Gracey's Harvest of Hope 501c3 as we support the Tripeny Family. 

Fred Tripeny is a sweet 14 year-old boy with a passion for swimming and "Blue's Clues". Before birth, he was diagnosed with Hydocephalous - a condition where there is too much fluid on the brain and he was also born with Cerebral Palsy. At six weeks old, he had the first of several brain surgeries, and as a result, he is wheelchair bound, with extremely limited mobility and an inability to speak or communicate effectively. 

Everyday activities are becoming more challenging as he grows into a 130+ teenager. Getting dressed, bathing, lifting in/out of the car and the costs continue to escalate as the family tries to find and pay for the proper care he needs. They are greatly in need of an accessible bathroom and specialized van, as well as support to give his parents temporary relief, as they have been able to leave him in others care overnight. 

We appreciate your participation and support of Harvest of Hope as we support children with all abilities. 

You can donate by clicking on the donate button. We appreciate any donations and hope to see you at the race.

Ika Family

We invite you to join us for the 6th year of Gracey's Harvest of Hope 501(c)(3) as we support the Ika Family. 

The Ika family lost their father last year.  It has been a devastating loss for all seven children, ages 19, 17, 16, 15,12,11 and 7. It has been a struggle both financially and emotionally.  Asa, the 15 year old son, asked his friend Tonu Samani if he could  return from California with the Samani family and live with them.  

The Samani's having 10 children of their own (9 living at home) welcomed Asa with open arms. Soon the rest of the Ika family followed and the Samani's again welcomed each and every one of the them. There are now 16 children living in the house together.   

The High school aged children all attend East High School and Asa and Tonu are on the football team together.  The kids would love to be able to go to college, however the oldest kids have to work to support the family.  

Please help us ease some of their financial burdens and achieve their dreams of attending college by joining us on September 29th. 

2016 Gracey's Harvest of Hope

Family of Leonidas

We invite you to join us for the 5th year of Gracey’s Harvest of Hope 501(c)(3) as we support The family of Leonidas and Josh Schiffman's Lab dedicated to cancer research.

Josh is a renowned pediatric hematologist-oncologist at Primary Children's Hospital and Huntsman Cancer Institute. Dr. Shiffman's research focuses on the development of childhood cancer and he runs a translational genomics laboratory to identify which children are at risk for cancer and why. 

Leonidas Nkurunziza grew up in poverty stricken Burundi. Through the refugee program he, his wife Goreth, and 6 small children were able to come to the United States in February of 2008. In December of 2010, his wife unexpectedly died leaving him to care for the 6 children himself.

In February of this year, Leonidas also unexpectedly died from complications of pneumonia, leaving the 6 children alone. There are no local relatives to help so a wonderful group of friends and neighbors have been helping them. Fortunately, the oldest son, age 20 has recently been granted guardianship. While they know that the financial strain is great, they are very aware that this is what their parents desired for them. 

Leonidas was a loving, happy and cheerful man. He was a dedicated Father. He spent countless hours serving others here and in Burundi. He had hopes and dreams for his children here that living in Africa wouldn’t provide. 

Just like all of us, Goreth’s greatest dream was to see that each of her children would receive an education. The money raised through Gracey’s Harvest of Hope will help the children with their expenses while they focus on an education. 

Please help us keep their dreams alive so that their children may have successful and happy lives by easing some of their financial burdens a reality! 

We want to thank everyone involved in Gracey's Harvest of Hope last week. Mother Nature brought heavy rains through much of the day, but she gave us small rainfree window to pull off a great event. We were pleasantly surprised with the attendance and it ended up being a wonderful night. Here are a few pictures from Friday.

2015 Harvest of Hope Recipients

Glenn Family

GLENN FAMILY: Patricia and Kelly Glenn are the proud parents of triplet 4 year-old boys – Edison,
George and Parker – and Kelly’s beautiful daughter from a previous marriage, Olivia. Edison was born
with severe cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and uses a wheelchair. During his short life, Edison has had
many visits to and hospitalizations at Primary Children’s Hospital. Edison’s identical twin, George,
displayed concerning behaviors of speech delays, both George and Edison were eventually diagnosed
with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Patricia is involved in Edison’s speech therapy, physical therapy,
occupational therapy, botox and phenol injections, and now ABA therapy for George (10+ hours a
week). Parker, fortunately, is thriving. Due to their boys’ medical issues and needs, they attend three
different schools at three different times. Life for this family is incredibly stressful and busy.
To complicate matters, in January 2015, Patricia was diagnosed with
double negative HER2 positive, poorly differentiated (grade 3)
invasive ductal carcinoma, after a lump in her breast that had been
growing since June 2014 was misdiagnosed as a hematoma. Due to her diagnosis, she has a very high risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer and melanoma. She recently endured a double mastectomy and is currently undergoing intensive chemotherapy. She is on round 15 with three more rough rounds of chemo to go. Once her body recovers, she will undergo at least an additional 20 rounds of chemotherapy. As Patricia recently said, “We will survive, I know, but we need your help. Please keep us in your prayers. Life is still beautiful despite the scars.”

Josh Schiffman

DR. SCHIFFMAN serves as the Medical Director for the High Risk Pediatric
Cancer Clinic at the University of Utah, where he cares for children and families
with inherited risk for cancer. Dr. Schiffman's research focuses on the
development of childhood cancer and he runs a translational genomics
laboratory to identify which children are at risk for cancer and why. 

Dr. Schiffman works closely with epidemiologists, population scientists, and molecular biologists to try to answer this question.Most recently, Dr. Schiffman has recognized the power of comparative oncology to advance the field of cancer research. The Schiffman Lab is now actively involved in comparing the genomics and functional biology of different species across the animal kingdom (including elephants!) and using this information to guide cancer research. Dr. Schiffman is working hard to use genomic technology to personalize the delivery of care to children and families with cancer, both in our community and around the globe. 100% of every donation made to Schiffman Labs will go directly to research.

Wrapping up 2014 - Looking forward to 2015

Here are a few pictures from Gracey's Harvest of Hope 2014. It was a huge success and we thank everyone involved. We're only a couple weeks away from this year's event and we hope these pictures will get you excited to attend. A can't miss event - October 2nd, 5:30 pm start.