Your support directly improves the lives of children and families at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital
Our Impact
The GO BO Fund, through the generous support of our wonderful community, has raised and donated over $750,000 to Georgetown University Hospital’s Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology’s Emergency Family Relief Fund. The fund helps children and families going through treatment with critical support funding to lessen the burden of the traumatic experience.
Utility payments
These payments, primarily gas and electric, comprises most of our request in that families are trying to prevent their utilities being turned off.
Medical chair
An osteosarcoma patient who had loss the use of his legs through chemotherapy needed a chair so that he would not have to sit up in his bed all the time. The previous chair had broken due to his weight gain.
Shelving for the toy closet
Shelving that was movable and transparent was purchased for the toy closet after a staff member had a bad accident in the closet. This was a safety measure.
Car Payments
Transportation is important for our patient population. Our patients cannot travel on public transportation, so we have assisted with car payments and /or repairs so that their vehicles can be available to transport them to their medical appointments.
Telephone and cable
We assisted families with telephone and cable bills as it is necessary to be able to communicate with your medical professionals, employer, child’s school, etc., in these circumstances.
Funeral expenses
One of our hematology patients died in June 2018 and we assisted the family with some of the expenses. Many of our patients are precluded from getting life insurance due to having a pre-existing condition.
Airfare
One of our young adult patients needed assistance with airfare to travel to another city for an in-patient psychiatric facility.
Christmas holiday
The fund has supported our Christmas Party at the Leavey Center Hotel and Conference Center for approximately five years. This provides us with the space, food and accommodations that we need to provide a nice holiday party for our families. In addition to the party itself, we turn the space into a toy store with our leftover toys and invite families who are unable to do Christmas shopping to shop at this temporary toy store. We wrap the gifts for them and it helps to address the anxiety that comes with Christmas when you cannot get out to shop and/or do not have the money to do so. This year we purchased gift wrap items, including gift bags.
Rent and mortgage
We assisted a few families with rent/mortgage to prevent eviction or foreclosure. The patient population that we serve would be severely medically compromised if they had to move into a shelter due to eviction or foreclosure.
Transportation to camp
The fund has graciously supported the transportation cost to take our hematology patient to camp in Ashford Connecticut. There are not many medically supported camps for hematology patients which is why this clinic partnered with The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp to provide the camping experience for this patient population. Patients with complicated medical conditions usually cannot attend a regular overnight camp because of the lack of medical resources available at those facilities.
Hotels
We paid for a family who lived a long distance to stay at the Leavey Center Hotel and Conference Center on several occasions when the patient had an early morning procedure and it would have been too burdensome for the family to travel from home to get to the hospital in time for the procedure with a young patient.