Angels aid childhood cancer patients

IOWA CITY – Angels continue to surround the angelic Ben Ries, the inspiration for Aiming For A Cure, which topped the $1 million mark last weekend in funds raised to support cancer patients and their families at University of Iowa Children's Hospital.

A homemade medallion with a relief image of an angel, which showed up mysteriously in a fund-raising collection can, confirmed Deb Berg's suspicion that angels have a hand in Aiming For A Cure's remarkable success.

Berg, coordinator of the Coins For a Cure fund-raiser at Alburnett Schools, said she just woke up one morning with an idea to involve the deceased Ben's schoolmates in his dream to help his fellow cancer patients.

“It was like it had been planted by an angel,” Berg said.

Speaking at Aiming For A Cure's eighth annual banquet here Saturday evening, Berg said the students' campaign, which involved the distribution of more than 60 collection cans at area businesses, had netted more than $31,000.

That number will grow before the campaign's May 15 conclusion at the graduation ceremony for the Class of 2011, of which Ben, who died in 2005, had been a member.

While sorting some of the donated coins, Berg said she found a disc-like object that looked like it had once been a nickel but which now featured the angel image. Ben's classmates inscribed “With love, Ben's class, 2011” on the back, attached a silver chain and presented it to Ben's mother, Jodie Ries, at the banquet.

The memento of a son who is dead but far from gone “gave me goosebumps,” Jodie Ries said.

“He just continues to shine back through our lives. It wasn't a coincidence,” Ben's sad, Steve Ries, said.

The Ries family started Aiming For A Cure in 2004 as a way to fulfill Ben's desire to help his fellow cancer patients at the Children's Hospital. To honor Ben's love of hunting dogs, they conceived an annual benefit that would bring together dogs and bird hunters at Highland Hideaway Hunting.

Steve Ries attributes the foundation's astounding success to “the angels among us.”

An event conceived to entertain 100 hunters has reached the million-dollar mark in eight years because it has no overhead costs. Because of “volunteers giving from the heart, we can give back 100 percent of everything,” Ries said.

Though physical constraints limit the number of hunters and banquet attendees, “we keep growing through the addition of sponsors and other special events,” he said.

This year's banquet program lists 16 sponsors who have donated $3,000 or more, another 26 who have donated between $500 and $3,000 and another 62 who have donated between $100 and $500. The program also lists 66 in-kind donors, 82 volunteers and the 17 members of the committee that meets regularly during the year to plan and guide the foundation's activities.

The foundation has donated $350,000 to support eight research projects since 2006. The rest goes for patient comfort and entertainment and to help families deal with financial burdens.

While the weekend activities focus heavily on fun and fellowship, the foundation does not shy away from its reason for being.

The banquet features a slide show of Children's Hospital patients – many with bald heads, all with brave smiles, some followed by the words, “in loving memory.”

“Those are the faces that justify our support. Unless you've had that seat on the bus, it's impossible to know what that's like,” said master of ceremonies Gary Wendt.