The Patricia Rodrigues Memorial Fund

The Patricia Rodrigues Memorial Fund has been established to support the work of the Child Life Specialist & the Christy Fund. This Fund will ensure that creative materials will always be available to the children for craft, play and diversionary activities during their treatments. It will also ensure that nutritional snacks will also be available for the children while at the clinic. Mrs. Rodrigues (pictured at left at the recent CHILD Cancer Fund Concert for Hope) was an advocate for all children her entire life. She truly believed that every child was one of her own. This fund will help spread her love to those children who desperately need it the most.

You may donate to this fund by emailing Lauren Harrell, or by mailing your donation to:

CHILD Cancer Fund
Attn: Patricia Rodrigues Fund
4811 Atlantic Boulevard
Jacksonville, Fl 32207

On Saturday, November 17, 2007, the Sigma Nu fraternity hosted the “Volley for Christy” charity volleyball tournament on the University of Central Florida campus. Eight co-ed teams comprised of Greek organizations and other friends competed in the double elimination tournament for the chance to take home a first or second place trophy.

From 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, participants listened to music by DJ Steven Harowitz, consumed subs and pizza, and hoped to hear their names announced during the raffle drawing. Autographed hats by pro beach volleyball player Karch Kiraly, autographed Misty May sports bras, Corona visors, volleyball shirts and accessories were donated for the raffle by Alison Wood, Director of Beach Programs for USA Volleyball. Sigma Nu alumni, Bud Bilanich, provided autographed copies of his six books dealing with leadership, performance, and values.

The team of Zeta Tau Alpha and Sigma Chi took home the gold with Chi Omega and Theta Chi receiving the silver trophies. Over $2,000 was raised for the Christy Fund, a CHILD Cancer Fund program that is an endowment for the Child Advocate position in the Nemours Children’s Clinic Hematology/Oncology Division.

CHILD Cancer Fund would like to give special thanks to all the Sigma Nu’s for their hard work and dedication to The Christy Fund. More pictures from this event can be found at www.mupsisigmanu.org/vfc.

Proton Beam brings State of the Art Treatment and Expansion of CCF Services.
The CHILD Cancer Fund is gearing up for significant changes in the treatment of childhood cancer in the Jacksonville community. In August of 2006, Shands Jacksonville established a Proton Beam Radiology Unit. It is only one of 5 units in the nation. The system is revolutionary in the treatment of cancer because it uses proton beams instead of X-rays. Proton therapy delivers very tightly defined high doses of radiation to destroy tumors, with little or no damage to adjacent healthy tissues.

Jacksonville will soon become a destination for childhood cancer treatment both regionally and nationally. While this is exciting news for the City and medical community in general, the influx of new patients will force CCF to look for new ways to expand its services.

Children taking part in this new technology will receive their chemo treatments and office care Nemours Children's Hospital. Because of the various specialties that need to be coordinated, a comprehensive clinic at Nemours is the most cost and time efficient way to address the need. This clinic would require a specialized nurse, psychologist as well as coordination of the medical specialties. Estimated yearly costs are $50,000 - $100,000.