Centre County nonprofit that helps cancer patients marks 20 years with major fundraiser
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- The Bob Perks Cancer Assistance Fund aims to raise $20,000 in a 20-week online campaign.
- Since 2006 the fund has distributed over $3.5 million to about 6,000 families in need.
- Recipients may receive up to $1,000 every 90 days, subject to committee approval.
A Centre County nonprofit is celebrating 20 years of supporting local cancer patients and their families, and is looking to raise $20,000 to mark the milestone.
The Bob Perks Cancer Assistance Fund was established in 2006 in memory of Bob Perks, a founding member of Coaches vs. Cancer at Penn State, who died of melanoma in 2005.
Founded by his wife, Doreen Perks, the fund is meant to “fill in the gaps” in financing cancer treatment and recovery. The Bob Perks Cancer Fund is available to patients in seven counties, including Bedford, Blaire, Centre, Clearfield, Huntingdon, Juniata and Mifflin.
The fund is partnered with the American Cancer Society, the organization responsible for Coaches vs. Cancer, to ease the financial strain of individuals and families struggling while undergoing cancer treatment. The Bob Perks Fund finances necessities like food, utility bills and rent for patients, rather than the standard cost of treatment.
“We cover people on a day-to-day basis, when they have cancer and just can’t make ends meet,” Doreen Perks said. “That’s the one piece we thought wasn’t being covered.”
Recipients can receive up to $1,000 every 90 days with established need. The request is then logged and dispersed through the fund’s allocations committee.
Since its inception, the fund has donated over $3.5 million to approximately 6,000 families in need. In honor of their anniversary, they’re now aiming to raise that total even higher. For 20 weeks, from June 1 to Oct. 19, the Bob Perks Fund is hosting an online fundraiser with the hope of raising $20,000 — enough to cover around 20 new patient grants.
The event has attracted the attention of an anonymous donor who has pledged to match donations up to $10,000, which, according to Perks, is growth she hardly imagined when the nonprofit first started.
“As we celebrate this 20-year anniversary, I sometimes can’t believe where we started and where we’ve come,” she said.
In 2006, the Bob Perks Fund received $16,000 from Coaches vs. Cancer to begin their mission. When they turned to the community, however, the organization initially struggled to find people to award the money to.
According to Perks, the fund’s clients are often brought to them via a referral source — often a patient navigator, social worker or cancer clinic employee who establishes a benchmark of need in patients and directs them to the fund.
In the early days of the nonprofit, the fund had not developed a relationship with these sources, but much like their donation totals, that number grew in time.
“They really understand us,” Perks said about their referral sources. “When someone cancels their appointment, and they call to ask why, and they say, ‘Well, I can’t afford the gas to get there,’ … that’s when they’re referring to the Bob Perks Fund.”
Twenty years later, the fund hosts two annual fundraisers: “Rock the 80s,” a themed dance night at The State Theatre and a “Night at the Races,” a mock racetrack gambling event. The events raise around $25,000- $30,000 annually, with the assistance of community members, special event partners and strategic partners.
The Bob Perks Fund has cultivated relationships with several large donor organizations, including healthcare providers Geisinger and UPMC Altoona and fellow nonprofits United Way of Mifflin and Juniata Counties and Girls Night Out. Sheetz has also been a long-time strategic partner of the fund, providing $15,000 in gas cards annually, along with monetary donations.
However, it is not only corporate sponsors that keep the organization funded.
“We’ve had a lot of former patients, former grant recipients, who have really appreciated our assistance end up coming back as some supporters on the local level,” executive director Cindy Brown said.
Cori Donaghy, the lead singer of local rock band Genuine Red and the Issues, is one such supporter. Diagnosed with mantle cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2011, Donaghy was a year-long recipient of financial assistance, courtesy of the Bob Perks Fund.
“At that time, I was working in a job that did not provide health insurance,” Donaghy said. “[The Bob Perks Fund] sort of carried us and provided some kind of assistance.”
Now in remission, Donaghy and her band are annual performers at “Rock the 80s,” an event Donaghy characterized as an “overwhelmingly positive” experience.
“Everybody is enjoying themselves, and that vibe really makes the whole thing,” Donaghy said. “You very rarely see anyone who isn’t smiling, isn’t dancing. ... Even the staunch ‘I don’t dance’ people are sitting in their chairs rocking out in their own way.”
From “humble beginnings” to nearly $4 million raised, the Bob Perks Fund’s number of grant requests is only growing, something Brown suspects might be related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I would bet we haven’t seen the leveling out of cancer patients who missed diagnosis,” Brown said. “It’s only been six years since COVID. ... People weren’t going to the doctor and now, you know, we are seeing cancer patient applications on the rise.”
The Bob Perks Fund, throughout its 20 years of operation, is no stranger to growing patient needs, but this year the organization expects to break records to provide financial support, thanks to donations of any size.
“This one time, I got a donation in the mail. I got a check for $10, and it was an old recipient who wanted so badly, now that she was well, to give back,” Perks said. “That’s probably all they could give, but it meant so much to them … we get so many thank yous that are really, really heartfelt.”
To donate or learn more about the Bob Perks Fund 20k for 20 years fundraiser, visit www.bobperksfund.org/events-1/bpf-20-k-for-20-years.
