Update on our New Blessing

On behalf of the Andrew and Abby Szott Foundation, the Board of Directors and the future families to whom will benefit, I want to give UnitedHealth Group and its business partners a great big thank you. The 14th annual UHG golf event was held on Thursday, September 22 at the Majestic Oaks Golf Club. The success of the event was astounding. The Szott Foundation received a donation of $476,120, an amount that out performed the previous 13 years. We are humbly grateful.

It has been our experience that the families we gift have lost much due to the strain of caring for a child with life-threatening cancer. This kind of crisis leads to loss of homes, loss of jobs, loss of optimism and dreams, loss of emotional energy, and time. We have found a tremendous need to help fill this bucket of losses.

To our knowledge, we are the only foundation that replenishes a salary so parents can take care of their child without the distress of financial burden. We have now given more than $165,000 to 13 different families. We have figured that it costs about $100 per day to supplement a family’s lost income. Over 90% of our donated money has gone directly to families. We have ben able to do this because our Board of Directors volunteers their time and energy. We have no paid staff at this time, no office rent, and a dedicated group of friends and volunteers that support the Foundation’s efforts.

Every week we receive numerous emails or phone calls from around the country from heartbroken parents, social workers, and pediatric oncology nurses asking for our help. It is our goal to expand regionally and then nationally when I retire from my teaching job in three years. Right now, because of the generosity of UHG and its business partners, we will be able to set up an endowment to secure that the mission of the Szott Foundation will be sustained over time.

We truly have been blessed.
Kathryn Szott, President

A New Blessing

Hello friends of the Szott Foundation,

It has been quite a busy summer, and it all began in late April. The Szott Foundation was notified that it would be the fortunate recipient of the 2011 UnitedHealth Group Golf Event. The golf event committee identifies a different charity each year through an internal vote, and 100% of the sponsorship funds go to the targeted charity. Vendors of UHG provide the donations, and the sponsor levels range from $3500 to $15,000. We are deeply honored and grateful. The event will take place on September 22 at Majestic Oaks Golf Club in Ham Lake, MN.

As a result, we will be giving more than our predetermined number of Gifts of Time in 2011 and 2012. The Gift of Time allows for one parent to stay home from work full-time to manage the physical, emotional and medical needs of a child with life-threatening cancer. We plan to present one Gift at the UHG Golf event and at least one more Gift at the Abby Invite Gymnastics Tournament in the winter.

On behalf of the Szott Foundation’s Board of Directors, I’d like to thank UnitedHealth Group and the many businesses that have allowed us to take the Foundation to a new level. The donors will be identified individually on our website as the date of the event draws nearer.

Sincerely,
Kathryn Szott, President

Spring 2011

April 12, 2011

Hello Szott Foundation Friends,

We are so excited, as we are getting ready to mail out our first annual appeal letter. Our data base is in need of some “spring cleaning,” so we are taking care of that before the letters go out. Please be looking for our letter in the near future.

Once again, the Abby Invite held in mid December, was a lot of fun and financially successful. Sixty-eight hundred dollars were raised! This was the first year that all the high schools in District 196 pooled their resources to hold one of the most prestigious meets in the state of MN. This comes as a welcomed change for the Eastview High School gymnasts, parents, and coaches, as they have hosted it alone since 2004. In the coming years the meet will be organized by District196 high schools on a rotating basis. We want to thank all the parents, coaches, students, and other volunteers that help to make this annual event a success, and we look forward to next year’s meet at Rosemount High School.

We want to remind all of you that the Andrew and Abby Szott Foundation continues to prosper. We have a dynamic board of people with an abundance of energy, creativity, and business knowledge. Since we made the decision during the summer of 2010 to scale back our large fundraising efforts until my retirement from teaching in 2014, we will continue to give at least one Gift of Time each year. With your help from our first annual appeal, that number will likely rise.

On behalf of the Szott Foundation board of directors, we wish you well, and we thank you in advance for your continued support that allows one parent to stay home from work full-time to meet the emotional, physical, and medical needs of a child with life threatening cancer. There is no more important Gift than this.

Blessings!

Kathryn