By Rhonda Massad
A group called Kuper Moms raised $11,000 with the support of Kuper Academy in Kirkland to be shared equally with Mathew Schreindorfer and Ballet Montreal Performing Arts.
The group was originally formed to help parents of students in the school who had newly arrived in Canada. The group helps new arrivals integrate into the community and in turn find themselves helping those in need. This spring they chose two separate organizations with which to share their fundraising efforts.
Ballet Montreal, based in Pointe Claire, is a non-profit dance academy and performing arts school. The school promotes arts, culture, healthy lifestyles and well being through dance.
Next the group chose to donate to the crowd funded campaign to get a last hope cancer treatment to Laval resident Mathew Schreindorger. According to member, Mary DeSantis, one morning over breakfast the group of six mothers made the decision to help Save Mathew.
With the help of Ballet Montreal, a variety show was put on to raise funds. When it came time to deliver the cheque to Mathew, the ladies made an appointment with Mr. Luciani, Mathew’s father in law.
“When the door opened we were startled to have Mathew greet them,” DeSantis told The Suburban, “it was emotional for us all. Mathew was very grateful.”
At press time the Saving Mathew campaign had raised more than $800,000 towards the final goal of $840,000.
Schreindorfer’s journey included an eight month fight through three intensive induction chemotherapies and two clinical trials. During his stay at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Mathew’s experimental T-cell treatment included modifying his white blood cells in a lab for about 10 days and then re-injecting the cells into his body.
Today Mathew is at home, cancer free, awaiting further treatment and expects another four to six week hospital stay in Montreal.
“These last 2 weeks we have had a few visits to the hospital to complete my pre-transplant bill of health,” Schreindorfer stated in his latest Facebook post. “Thankfully, everything seems to be in order, and I am now waiting for the call to know when I’ll be admitted to the hospital. In the meantime, I continue to enjoy life, the weather, my family, my friends, my home and the NHL playoffs.”
Schreindorfer has not receive his final hospital bill from his stay in New York but expects to receive it within two weeks. Should there be remaining funds will be put towards the advancement of research for leukemia treatments and an effort to bring the CAR-T cell treatment to Canada.
The entire of list of community minded moms from Kuper Academy are Mary DeSantis Carla Tabah, Susanne Bevacqua, Rosie Dilek, Monica Karam, Gaby Castellano and Salwa Riachi.
