Cancer doesn’t stop for a pandemic. The Tomorrow Fund has witnessed this first hand, and along with it, a large drop in fundraising and donations. Because of this, the Warwick Beacon and Cranston Herald are joining forces with Mayor-Elect Frank Picozzi to donate $10 from every new $39 one-year subscription to the Fund.

“Cancer knows no boundaries,” says Lisa Abbenante, the executive director of the Tomorrow Fund. She acknowledges that fundraising this year has been “extremely difficult.”

In light of the pandemic, the Tomorrow Fund was forced to cancel most of their internal fundraisers. Abbenante said she saw a steep decline in the external support normally received from the community. The fund had to take their annual fundraising gala virtual. The “Count on Me” event was held in November via Facebook Live, and raffled off several large prizes including professional holiday landscaping, a home remodel from Cardi’s Furniture, and a chartered fishing expedition on Block Island. For the past 32 years, the Fund has hosted an Annual Fantasy Ball that provides one-third of the year’s revenue to help families. According to Abbenante, this year’s event was successful for what it was, but the Fund is still facing a gap in fundraising.

Just how big is that gap? “The gap is hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hundreds,” says Abbenante.

“Everyone is having a very challenging time this year, between the COVID and the mandates, and so on and so forth, but for the families it’s been even more difficult,” she said in an interview. The Tomorrow Fund, like many other non-profit organizations, faced a staggering increase in assistance requests this year. The Tomorrow Fund provides emotional and monetary support to families of children receiving medical services from Hasbro and the oncology department by providing parking stipends, covering travel costs for out of state care, working with social workers and families in crisis, and providing rental and mortgage assistance. Funds also support scholarship programs and summer camps for the children.

These services, says Abbenante, allow “families to focus on their children instead of bills piling up at home. Every parent has the biggest dreams for their kids. They might be saving for private school or college. No one is saving for their child’s funeral.”

To date, the Tomorrow Fund has supported over 2,000 children and their families.

As an independent non-profit, the Tomorrow Fund receives no state or federal funding. All their efforts are due to community fundraisers. “We’ve had people still support us through our virtual events, or do a Facebook fundraiser. All those things are tremendously appreciated and so, so helpful. But it’s not enough,” said Abbenante.

One of the community fundraisers that are a regular contributor to the Tomorrow Fund is the Picozzi Family Christmas Display. The energetic and festive light show that has been bringing the holiday spirit to Warwick for almost a decade, collects donations for the Tomorrow Fund. In a more conventional year, the show collects about $4,500 for the Fund.

When Frank Picozzi set up his light display, he was worried that the pandemic would hinder donations since people aren’t getting out of their cars to watch the lights.

In an interview, he mentioned that the display “was crowded right from the get go. Right out of the gate there was a lot of attendance, just because people are looking for something to bring them a little happiness,”

While there may be more people watching the show, Picozzi said the donations are trickling in slower than years past.

Abbenante says she’s “thankful” for people like Frank “who consistently support” the Tomorrow Fund, but the Picozzi Family Light Show isn’t enough.

This holiday season the Warwick Beacon and Cranston Herald are teaming up with Frank Picozzi to raise money for the Tomorrow Fund. From now through the end of the year, $10 of every new subscription to the Beacon or Herald will be donated to the Fund. About $200 has already been raised since the fundraiser went live on Sunday.

To subscribe to either paper, visit bit.ly/beacon-lights2020 or the Picozzi Family Christmas Display Facebook page. To donate directly to the Tomorrow Fund, visit www.thetomorrowfund.org.