Roy L. Williams
Hoover-Metro Kiwanis Club
Presenting a $1,250 check to the Hope for Autumn Foundation from left to right are: Bob Brown, president of the Hoover-Metro Kiwanis Club, Hoover City Councilman John Lyda, Travis Diggs, president and founder of the Hope for Autumn Foundation and Amanda Knerr, executive director of the foundation.
The Hoover-Metro Kiwanis Club, during its Friday, Aug. 21 breakfast meeting, presented a $1,250 check to the Hope for Autumn Foundation to help fight childhood cancer.
Accepting the check from the Hoover-Metro Kiwanis Club were Travis Diggs, president and founder of the Hope For Autumn Foundation, and Amanda Knerr of Hoover, the foundation's executive director. Knerr’s 12-year-old daughter, Emily Knerr, is an ovarian cancer survivor.
Hope for Autumn Foundation’s Mission is to provide new hope and assistance for families battling childhood cancer, to support innovative research in childhood cancer therapies, and to increase community awareness of childhood cancer and cutting- edge treatment options, Diggs said. The foundation accepts assistance applications from families from the Alabama region who are battling childhood cancer, then helps them offset the financial burdens they face.
Bob Brown, president of the Hoover-Metro Kiwanis Club, said the Hope for Autumn Foundation fits the Kiwanis’ global mission of improving the world, one child and one community at a time. This year, Kiwanis celebrated its 100th anniversary.
“The Hoover-Metro Kiwanis Club, in conjunction with the Alabama District of Kiwanis International, is proud of our association with the Hope for Autumn Foundation,” Brown said. “We applaud and support their efforts to alleviate the personal suffering and financial hardships caused by childhood cancer, and join them in recognizing Children's Hospital of Birmingham as one of the nation's premier pediatric treatment centers.”
Diggs said the $1,250 donation will enable Hope for Autumn Foundation to ease the burdens families dealing with pediatric cancer have to face. Funds raised by the foundation benefit the Alabama Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorder’s Development Program at Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital of Alabama. That program serves children with incurable cancers, providing research and treatment not widely available.
“One of our missions is to raise childhood cancer awareness,” Diggs said.
Knerr said the donation helped a Homewood family with a child fighting cancer pay off an Alabama Power bill and get in a Habitat for Humanity home.
As part of National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, the Hope for Autumn Foundation is working with the city of Hoover and Hoover City Schools to spread the word to the public about childhood cancer, Knerr said.
“We are about to announce that Hoover City Schools will recognize Give Hope Day on Sept. 23, the first day of autumn,” Knerr said. “I’ve done research and as far as I know Hoover City Schools will be the first district in the state that will recognize childhood cancer awareness.”
Knerr said her daughter, Emily, is a childhood cancer survivor and other children in Hoover city schools are battling cancer.
“Awareness leads to funding and funding leads to a cure,” she said.
Several events to raise awareness about childhood cancer will take place in Hoover during September, and details are on the foundation website.
Knerr’s daughter, Emily, will be lead runner at this year’s 6th Annual Head Over Teal, a race to be held at the Preserve in Hoover on Saturday, Sept. 12 beginning at 8 a.m. For more information and to register for the race, go to www.thinkoflaura.org.
