The Suzanne Ciani Brain Cancer Foundation is an organization that helps raise awareness about brain cancer. Their goal is to help towards finding a cure and prevention to cancer. The foundation was formed in senior Kristen Ciani’s aunts honor.
“We came up with the idea of the foundation while she was fighting cancer. She had it for 18 months, and she wanted to help other families who also had to go through it so they wouldn’t have to go through everything that we had to,” said Ciani.
The foundation raises money to help support the Moffitt Cancer Research center. Their vision statement is to ” Transform cancer care through service, science and partnership,” according to their website.
One of the ways the foundation tries to help is through “Brews for Brains.”
“Brews for Brains is a different company we work with, they work at different restaurants doing events sometimes they do Karaoke night, where the proceeds go to cancer research,” said Ciani.
Another event they host is an annual 5k run. They also help Moffitt cancer research center with their annual “Miles for Moffitt” 5k race, where all funds raised support cancer research.
Around the holidays the foundation collects items, such as canned food and tolieteries to make baskets, which go to families who have been impacted by cancer.
“We try to help families as much as we can. A lot of the money we have we use to help them pay for medical bills and other expenses for their family because its really hard when you are in the hospital for a month and you have all these bills to pay,” said Ciani.
Project #MADE is the foundations expression. #MADE stands for make a difference everyday, its what the foundation goes on. The slogan encourages people to help make a difference in the lives of others.
Steinbrenner students can help the foundation by volunteering at their events and by participating in project #MADE.
Joselle Schaffer// News Editor
