Danielle Cordero
I’m Danielle Cordaro. I’m the Public Relations Consultant for the organization. We fulfill the final dreams of terminally ill adults. That is what we do. We believe passionately, in the words of Dr. Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal, it matters to people how their stories come to close. Well, a dream often gives our recipients and their families the opportunity to make the most of the time they have left. It also improves their end-of-life care by addressing their emotional and psychological needs and allows them an element of control and independence. Like I said, we serve terminally ill adults and their families providing end-of-life dreams that offer joy, comfort and closure. But I think the joy really resonates the most. We see it in photos. We read about it in thank you letters we receive from Dream recipients, their families, care teams, their hospice teams. It’s a joy that starts early, because anticipating a dream can really lift the spirit, and the joy lingers on in the memories and stories, and perhaps best of all, the joy reaches out beyond the Dream recipient to the people on the sidelines, to those who may have made the referral, who are playing a part in fulfilling the dream. They are witnessing something important when someone who really needs it gets to experience something wonderful, and our natural response is joy. We receive no state or federal funding, and we rely solely on the donations of individuals and companies that align with our mission. Over the last three decades, we have served more than 35,000 dreams. I wanted to share several dreams along my journey here with you today. This is Eleanor. She wanted a birthday for her, a big 90th birthday where everyone could come and dance the night away. Her family, including great-grandchildren, all came together to celebrate her life. And her son-in-law told us after the party, it was such a success, and he considered all of us family now. So it was really special and lovely. To qualify, Dream recipients must be the age of 18 or older with a life expectancy of 12 months or less, or if they have a diagnosis like dementia or ALS or another progressive disease, if after the 12 months, they declined to a point where they can no longer actively participate or enjoy the dream they can qualify. We serve dreams in the United States and Puerto Rico. And last but not least, as I’m going through my notes here, they also have to lack the resources to fulfill the dream. And that isn’t necessarily financial. We’ll have Dream recipients that asked to meet a celebrity, for example, and so it’s just that they don’t have that connection. So we don’t want to say and limit anyone from applying just because they may be financially favorable, but so often with medical care, that’s not the case. Over the years, we’ve been privileged to hear from spouses, family members and close friends who told us how much Dream Foundation’s work meant to them and those they love. It just takes a scroll through our Instagram feed to take a glimpse at some of the lives we are touching. After 35,000 dreams, we have 1000’s of testimonials from social workers, healthcare teams, family members and dream recipients telling us what a difference the dream made. We wanted a credible, independent measure to show the impact of dreams, so we turned to the American Psychiatric Association for help. They suggested running a study to find out whether fulfilling dreams improves the well being of terminally ill patients using the internationally recognized five-item World Health Organization Well-eing Index Survey. It asks people how good they feel, or if they wake up feeling refreshed and rested, or how interested they are and what’s going on around them. The survey was given to applicants before and after the dream was served, and they analyzed the results. The study showed that 80% of those taking part in study reported a greater sense of well-being after a dream, with the average increase in well-being reported at 21% these findings demonstrate that dreams do improve well being for the recipient, even as they physically decline. Our recipients cross all therapeutic areas, but a vast majority, almost 7 in 10, have a cancer diagnosis, and since this is a community that supports colon cancer patients, survivors and caregivers, I pulled some relevant statistics from the last few years. In the last five years, we had 123 applicants from patients with colon cancer. 54 of them were under the age of 50. In the last three years, it was 64 applicants, 25 of them under the age of 50. And then the last year, we had 22 of them under the age of 50. So for this year, we had 12 applicants, 8 of them have been under the age of 50. — Oh, our Dream recipients are in age from 18 all the way up to 108, all over 6 to 8% are over the age of 50. I really wanted to get into the types of dreams fulfilled. A lot of people ask this and ask us this, and we have requests from across the country and across the whole spectrum. We group them into some broad categories. As you can see, ‘basic needs’ are dreams that improve the quality of life by addressing practical needs. This is a one-time purchase of something that a dream recipient needs to improve some aspect of their day to day life. These dreams are born out of a hunger, not for adventure, but for some kind of normal, a return to their old self. This could be a computer to connect with friends and family, a large TV for entertainment, an electric recliner chair for a nap, an air conditioner window unit to stay comfortable, or even to get pest control services. We all appreciate the benefits of a vacation, but for many of our dream recipients and their families, this is the first and often the last family vacation, it’s an opportunity to create happy memories, to live carefree for a few days and spend quality time that those are with those that are closest. We also have family reunions, and those are all about visiting family, or bringing family for a visit, or special event where family and friends come together to celebrate, to reminisce, to share stories and to say goodbye. Maybe it’s a precious chance to say hello to someone who’s dear but they have only seen them in photos until that moment. And it’s surprising on how often that this happens. 4% of our requests are about an interaction with a personal hero that I had mentioned earlier, a celebrity or public figure that inspired the Dream recipient. But because we’re dealing with another person’s schedule and preferences, these dreams typically take a little bit longer to plan, and we can’t always count on the outcome, but we certainly do try. This is sort of the same with athletes, but sporting events, we have a great many relationships with sporting teams, and can often set up attendance to games or memorabilia. A ‘Daydream’ is a dream that can be accomplished in a day, so a spa day, or maybe a dinner and a movie, or anything else that can make it happen. We had a recipient who wanted to just take his wife to Chili’s for a special treat. And I have to tell you, it’s not just the recipient and his wife that felt special, but the staff at Chili’s really made it special, and they felt just as much that it was an unforgettable day. So it really is this spreading effect that these Dreams have. 9% of our requests are for theme parks. Most of these requests come from families with children wanting to keep a promise or see their children be kids again away from the daily routine. I will say that we no longer provide Disneyland tickets, but we can certainly help with travel to and from, and most of the other theme parks are kind enough to support us.

Many people are surprised to learn that every fifth room applicant lives with a child in the home. The dream to fulfill not only supports the Dream recipient, but their families too. Many requests are about promises made to children that now seem impossible to keep without help. We work with an organization such as an airline, theme park or hotel, and use their donations to keep our costs low and stretch our donor dollars. Only by using donated accommodations, airline tickets and activities are we able to say yes to every applicant that qualifies for a Dream. 13% of our Dreams, we fill our emergency Dreams. These Dreams are for applicants with a life expectancy of less than two months. When these Dreams come in, we have an expedited process to serve them as quickly as possible. Many emergency Dreams are for bedside reunions with the recipient, where the recipient only has a few days left. Those can be turned around and flights booked within 24 to 48 hours. On the other hand, we do not plan trips out of state for emergency requests, as we found that most of them end up not happening at all. So if an emergency Dream request comes in to ask for a vacation, we plan one within a two hour drive radius of the applicant’s home. And finally, almost half of our Dreams are hand delivered by a volunteer or partner. We call these ‘Dream Deliveries’ and for our volunteers and partners, it gives them an opportunity to connect to our mission and see firsthand the difference they make in our Dream recipients’ lives. For the Dream recipient, they get to see the compassion and commitment of people to help from people they never met. For many hospice patients, they get to celebrate their dream with their hospice team and their social worker or the nurses that care for them. I wanted to share about Marquis, originally from California. He spent his final days in a nursing home in Michigan, even though he suffered advanced dementia, his social worker let us know that every time his daughter called or was mentioned, he smiled and seemed to wake up a little. So we flew his daughter from California to his bedside for a visit, and she let us know that she had a wonderful time with her dad and he was so happy to see her. In her words, “my heart is so full, and I’m forever grateful”. Mark and his wife, Helene, had intended to go on a honeymoon when they were married 24 years ago, but were never able to make it happen. When Mark was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer, they realized it was now or never, but they needed help. We were able to work with the local community in Hawaii to bring the honeymoon to life that Mark and Helene had always dreamed of. The family spent six days and five nights exploring the island of Maui. Their trip was made complete with a morning cruise where Mark swam in the warm, crystal blue ocean, a moment of pure joy and relief. This is one of my favorites, Judy. She’s 82 from Saint Paul, Minnesota. She was diagnosed with end stage liver cancer. Her dream was to ride a Harley David Davidson motorcycle, and she wrote to us, “there is a sense of freedom in riding a motorcycle. For me, the thrill of the risk is exciting. This will be my last ride.”, and it was really important for Judy to ride on the body of the motorcycle, not in a sidecar. So with the help of the St. Paul Harley Davidson, her dream came true, and you can just see her. She’s just so cute, just enjoying the ride of her life. Another dream I want to share with you, who you may have heard about, Tanner, who was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer at 26 years old, just two years after he married the love of his life, Shea, and their life took a very sharp and unexpected turn. The couple faced countless challenges, but found their strength and their love, their family and something a little unexpected. Star Wars, the timeless stories of hope, resilience and defying the odds have always been a source of inspiration. So when Tanner reached out to us about meeting his hero, Mark Hamill, we were unsure if we could make it happen. But fortunately, Mark and his wife were delighted and honored to bring Tanner’s dream to life, as you can see here. I want to tell you a little bit about our program Dreams for Veterans. We’ve fulfilled dreams for veterans right from our first days in 1994 but by 2014 we saw that veterans and active service members’ dreams gave us a unique opportunity to acknowledge that an important chapter in these recipients’ lives is to engage with their families and community. We decided to formalize our commitment to them and created a subprogram called, Dreams for Veterans. The program has the same qualifications as a general Dream Program, but an applicant must also show proof of service. In 2015 it was officially launched. In 2016, we formed a strategic partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs, and since then, we have served over 1200 Dreams to veterans and active service members. Another wonderful aspect of this program is that we try to provide veteran to veteran Dream deliveries, where a veteran and a representative from the VA or from a Veteran Service Organization deliver the Dream to the recipient. These special Dream deliveries allow volunteers to meet, honor and acknowledge fellow veterans by presenting them with their Dream package and celebrating together. Oftentimes, the delivery will include a pinning or a challenge coin. We created a special Dreams for Veterans challenge coin that was cast specifically for these occasions to be presented as a token of recognition and gratitude for their service. Let us know if you’re caring for a veteran. We have a veteran application. We have our general Dream application. We have our AST hospice application. So I just want to share a couple of Dreams for Veterans stories. When Gerald served in the army, he hoped he would get to ride a helicopter, but it never came to be. Decades later, diagnosed with lung cancer, he still harbored the dream of flying deep within his heart. With encouragement and help from a social worker, he filled out the application to manifest his dream of a ride in his home state of Montana. I hope you can see the smile as it says it all. Gerald was so happy after his dream came true that, according to a social worker, he told everyone he encountered about it several weeks later, after he flew above the clouds. Philip served in the Navy during World War Two and the Korean War. He spent over 29 years in radio and television broadcasting. Thereafter, he’s somewhat of a historical figure in Pittsburgh broadcasting. His social worker told us, after being diagnosed with colon cancer, to his friends and family, he shared his dream of visiting the old television station CBC Pittsburgh that he had worked out for all of those years, and they were honored to work with us for a special, personalized visit for him, that even included a “shout out” during the day’s broadcast. And for John, he wanted to visit the Vietnam Memorial while in Washington DC, to say goodbye to fallen comrades with whom he served with. We worked with both Southwest Airlines and Honor Flight. It’s always wonderful when we have an opportunity to collaborate with other veteran service organizations and pool those resources so we can do more for our veterans. And it is the true essence of Dream Foundation and our Dreams for Veterans Program, people coming together, sometimes complete strangers, showing the Dream recipient that they matter and are not alone. We are a resource for individuals, caregivers, hospice and veteran organizations who are in need. Their families, friends, patients and clients have, or hear about opportunities they wish they still had, and by reaching out to us, those needs and opportunities can turn into dreams come true. We are here to be an extension of your team. There’s a lot I more I can say, but I feel like we’re running out of time. So, the referral process is so important. I know a lot of these organizations work in end-of-life care, but 52% of our applications are referrals, and those who do refer tend to be such a special part of the dream. We’ve had social workers who have been referring Dreams for 10 plus years. So it really is a wonderful tool for them. The application process is quite simple. Once you’re ready to refer a Dream, you just need the application form, the letter, financial documentation and a photo. Once you’re ready, you’ll go to our website, DreamFunding.org, or dreamsforveterans.org, and I know it seems like a lot, but like any application, we want to make, there’s the waiver of release, we want to make sure we have their general information. There’s a Dream agreement. Of course, if they’re a veteran, we want to get their proof of service. But a lot of questions about the application could be answered in our FAQs, but there’s a lot of information. Of course, our team is always here to help. I just want to touch base on the letter. For for me as the public relations consultant this really, this is one of those… Those are such important things. It really lets us know about the recipient and what they long for. The recipient can write their own letter, or have a friend or a social worker write it for them. But we want to understand the importance of the request, where it comes from, as it helps us to write pitches for in-kind donations, get donated hotel nights, event tickets, and if they make for a good press candidate. Of course, that’s something that helps me share our story, so that more people know about who we are and what our mission is. Financial documentation pretty straightforward. There’s lots of different ways to show that, but all the details are there in our application. We also love a photo. So once the applications come in, our Dream coordinators receive them. It gives them an idea of who they’re making that initial call to, and it can be taken within the last 12 months, it can be a snapshot on the phone, just something that sets apart the applicant the Dream process. Once we receive the application, which is like with all those elements that I just mentioned, we will, unless it’s an emergency Dream that we go by more quickly, then we have to go through medical verification. And then sometimes that can take a few days to a few months. It depends on how responsive the medical team is. And then once that happens, then our Dream coordinators will you get the dreams, and then they will go to work with planning them. And then there’s the Dream delivery. And so all this, like I said earlier, emergency review, 24 hours to three months. So it really depends on the life expectancy of the Dream recipient and how fast their teams help us as well. And then, of course, we love those feedback and the photos thereafter, and stories and quotes and whatnot. As the public relations consultant, I’d be remiss not to share our social media. Please do follow us. Please do share with everyone in your communities. You can just scroll through to find out more about our Dream recipients and and who we are, and what we do, but of course, you can always reach out to me, but I also recommend reaching out to Barbara Shook our VP of programs. She was unable to come today, and it was just it was so nice to speak with all of you, I really appreciate you taking the time, and I hope that we can collaborate on Dreams in the future.

Lauryn Cooney
Thank you, Danni, that was such a great, positive note. Not that everybody wasn’t positive, but a great note to end on. I really appreciate it. I appreciate all our presenters that were here today. I know we went significantly over, but everybody had such important things to say, and it’s going to be such a valuable asset to our community, and to the different communities, and even to each other just knowing what services exist. So I just wanted to thank everyone for being here and taking time out of your schedule, and we will be in touch. So thank you all.