The Habersham Foundation Academy has organized a raffle to benefit three local families in need, with almost 30 local businesses supporting the cause.
The three families, the Speed family, the Crunkleton family, and the Roberts family, have all faced tragedies in the last year that have impacted them financially. The Foundation Academy daycare, where the families either currently have children enrolled or were enrolled before tragedy hit, wanted to do something to help them in their time of need.
“We’re just reaching out,” Habersham Foundation Academy Director Sthar Trotman said. “Everyone wants to lend a helping hand, especially in the last two years that we’ve all had, to be able to reach out and help your neighbor, reach out and help someone in need, and just show some people working together for a good cause.”
The Speed family
Lauren Speed says her husband Matt was the kind of man who would do anything to help someone in need, and that she misses him every day. Matt passed away in February due to COVID-19, leaving his loving family and new baby McLaren behind.
“[Losing Matt] was very traumatic,” Speed said. “We were extremely happy, he was my best friend.”
She says that losing her husband has been an incredibly painful experience, but the support that she’s received from Foundation Academy has been a constant in a time of turmoil. Speed’s two older children went to Foundation Academy, and she says sending McLaren there was “a no-brainer.”
“People ask you how you are, and I’ve learned to kind of hate that question. People don’t really know what to say, but they do ask that,” Speed said. “People at foundations have just said, ‘I’m glad to see you,’ ‘What can I do for you?’, ‘How can I help you?’, and that’s been great. I definitely feel a connection to them and supported by them.”
The death of her husband has created a strain on Speed’s family, causing them to lose half of their income. Trotman says she hopes the raffle can help with that.
The Crunkleton family
Cayla and Josh Crunkleton woke up in the wee hours nearly a year ago to a phone call that changed their world: one of their adopted sons had a biological half-brother who had just been born. They knew instantly that this new baby was their son, too, and headed to bring him home. They had no idea what challenges their new baby, Hudson, would face.
Baby Hudson had been born prematurely and had to be resuscitated multiple times, and the Crunkletons soon learned that he had been exposed to drugs and alcohol while in utero.
Hudson now faces a slew of chronic health conditions, including developmental delays, failure to thrive, sleep apnea, bone age delays and prenatal dysphasia. He sees ten different specialists, as well as his pediatrician and surgery team.
Caring for Hudson has become a full-time job, leading Cayla to have to leave her job as a special education teacher. They lost half of their income.
“My husband has now taken on the role of providing for all of us when typically, it’s been a two-income home,” Cayla says. “We, unfortunately, are on one vehicle right now, so it’s also been a little struggle of making sure that all doctor’s appointments work around his [Josh’s] work schedule.”
Cayla says that when she and her husband learned about Foundation’s raffle, they were moved to tears. Because of fees and the family’s schedule, they’ve had to step away from receiving daycare at Foundation Academy, but the academy is still caring for them.
“They’re still caring about us, even though we had to step away,” Cayla says. “We’re just blessed. . . and then just to know that our town, [who] doesn’t know us, [wants to help]– we’re big enough to where not everybody knows everyone, but still small enough to have that hometown feel where people stand behind each other. . . I mean, really, we’re just, we’re thankful. They’re not only helping with medical needs and daycare visits and stuff, they’re helping keep families afloat.”
The Roberts family
When 1-year-old Sarah Roberts fainted during a diaper change, her parents, Corey and Ranae, knew something was very, very wrong. After multiple hospital visits, a blood transfusion and several tests, her medical team finally made a diagnosis– one that no one expected.
They found a mass in Sarah’s stomach and determined that Sarah, who turned 2 years old on the day of her diagnosis, had stomach cancer. It’s uncommon, and doctors believed it began developing while she was a developing embryo, before the placenta formed around her.
Sarah is halfway through her chemotherapy and has had stomach surgery to remove the part of her stomach a large tumor had grown in. Her doctors hope that after she completes her chemotherapy, what’s left of the tumor will shrink enough that they can either remove it or the threat will disappear.
“It’s been pretty crazy; it’s the last thing any of us expected,” Corey Roberts, Sarah’s father, says. “We were sad at first, but Ranae and I both held on to our faith and the trust in God. We had peace, we prayed about it. We were really sad, but it didn’t take long for us to have peace with the situation and just realize it was out of our hands.”
Her family is holding onto their faith, and feeling thankful that their community wants to support them financially as they face the stress of expensive medical bills.
“It [the funds] will take a little financial stress off our shoulders through this, and let us focus on loving our little girl and getting her better,” Corey says. “It’ll help in that way, and just really alleviate a lot of stress.”
A raffle for a good cause
The goal is to sell 1,500 tickets to support these families in need. One winner will take all– prizes include a Yeti Cooler full of gift cards, gift baskets and more from local businesses like All About Monore, Farm and Lavish, Bigg Daddy’s, Erin London, Blue Willow Floral, Brownies by Faith, Chicago’s Pizza and many, many more.
TO SEE A FULL LIST OF BUSINESSES, CLICK HERE.
Raffle tickets are $25 each and will go on sale Monday, May 2. A winner will be drawn on May 27.
You can purchase tickets at participating raffle businesses or through Foundation Academy. To purchase from Foundation Academy, you can call the daycare at 706-894-1529 or contact them by email at [email protected].
