Kristan "Kris" Cihak
In lieu of flowers
Background
Kris was passionate about making sure her students had the support they needed—both at school and at home. Backpacks of Love helps carry that mission forward by providing food to school-age children in Central Virginia so they don’t go hungry over the weekends. Your donation would be a wonderful way to keep her spirit alive, continuing to care for kids just like she did throughout her life.
American Cancer Society:
Kris fought a long and difficult battle with cancer, facing every challenge with strength and determination. While her fight is over, we want to help ensure that others have a chance at earlier detection, better treatments, and, one day, a cure. A donation to the American Cancer Society helps fund life-saving research, provide patient support, and expand access to preventive screenings. Contribute to Backpacks of Love
Contribute to American Cancer Society
About Backpacks of Love
The mission of Backpacks of Love is to eliminate hunger in school-age children in Central Virginia by providing food for their weekends. Many students get free breakfast and lunch during the week at school but don't have food for the weekend. We partner with school administration to supply and deliver bags of food for children to take home every weekend. We currently serve ~1000 children across eight Central Virginia counties and the City of Hopewell.Frequently asked questions
Answered by a team member at Backpacks of Love
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What is your mission?
The mission of Backpacks of Love is to eliminate hunger in school-age children in Central Virginia by providing food for their weekends.
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How are donations used?
100% of donations to Backpacks of Love enable us to purchase essential foods, package it into balanced and nutritious menus, and deliver it to children who need it most.
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What can be done with a $100 donation?
A $100 donation will provide 15 kids with food for a weekend. $275 will feed one kid for every weekend during the school year.
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What progress has been made already thanks to your donors?
Thanks to our donors we are currently serving schools in the city of Hopewell and 8 Central Virginia counties (Powhatan, Chesterfield, Henrico, Hanover, Goochland, Buckingham, Amelia & Cumberland). We deliver weekly food bags to ~1000 children each week. School administrators report that students who receive our food bags have improved attendance and are better able to focus and learn in class.
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What is the history of your organization?
Backpacks of Love, Inc. (BPOL) was founded in Powhatan County, Virginia in 2011. BPOL’s Founder, Bobby Fulcher, learned of a program in different state that provided weekend food for needy school age children. As a child, Bobby experienced the struggles of not having ample food to eat. Therefore, his passion to feed children became the mission and vision for BPOL. The initial trial included 23 elementary age children that had been identified as most needy. Since then, we have grown to delivering bags to 1000 children each week.
Recent contributions to Backpacks of Love
About American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society is the leading cancer-fighting organization with a vision of ending cancer as we know it, for everyone. We are the only organization working to improve the lives of people with cancer and their families through advocacy, research, and patient support, to ensure everyone has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer.Frequently asked questions
Answered by a team member at American Cancer Society
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What is your mission?
The mission of the American Cancer Society is to save lives, celebrate lives, and lead the fight for a world without cancer.
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How are donations used?
While most people know us for our research, we do so much more. We attack cancer from every angle. We promote healthy lifestyles to help you prevent cancer. We research cancer and its causes to find more answers and better treatments. We fight for lifesaving policy changes. We provide everything from emotional support to the latest cancer information for those who have been touched by cancer. And we do it all 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can call us on our helpline 1-800-227-2345 or visit us on cancer.org
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What can be done with a $100 donation?
$100 can provide two free nights at an American Cancer Society Hope Lodge community to patients and their caregivers, saving them more than $5,674 in lodging costs. It also has the potential to provide 4 free rides to treatment for cancer patients who would otherwise have no means of transportation.
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What progress has been made already thanks to your donors?
By taking what we’ve learned through research and translating it into action, we’ve contributed to a 26% decrease in the overall US cancer death rate since 1991. That means that we helped avoid nearly 2.4 million cancer deaths during that time.
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What is the history of your organization?
The American Cancer Society was founded in 1913 and has been the leading cancer fighting organization since that time. We’ve been part of major Cancer Breakthroughs in the Past Century, such as:
• The first successful chemotherapy treatment
• The adoption of the Pap test for uterine and cervical cancer screenings
• Requiring a warning label on all cigarette packets
• The first to scientifically prove a link between smoking and cancer
• Helping pass legislation that banned smoking in public places
• The first to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of mammograms for early detection
• We have the most contributions to bedside treatment breakthroughs
• And we have funded the most (49) Nobel Laureates in cancer research
Recent contributions to American Cancer Society
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