Ladders and Light Brigade decorates homes of cancer patients

Firefighters, mates and different South Side volunteers turned out on a chilly Saturday to brighten the vacation season for households with cancer.

As the Bracken household struggled with their toddler Finley’s cancer prognosis and elevating their three older sisters, their mates and household rallied round them.

“We had a lot of help,” stated Lacey Bracken. “The neighbors got together. A good friend started a Go Fund Me page. St. Cajetan (where her daughters went to school) looked after our three other children,” said Bracken. “They ran fundraisers.”

The holidays following Finley’s diagnosis in the fall of 2019 were particularly hectic as she was undergoing chemotherapy and her parents spent many nights at Lurie’s Children’s Hospital.

One day, her husband Dan’s father and brother showed up at their Beverly neighborhood home and began putting up their Christmas decorations without being asked.

It turned out to be a very meaningful gesture “as a result of it was Finley’s final Christmas, in spite of everything,” Bracken said. Their little girl died of neuroblastoma on September 11, 2020, just weeks before her 3rd birthday.

Appreciating the support received, the family established the Finley Forever Foundation.

Bracken said they wanted to pass it on to other families dealing with cancer.

“We assist households primarily financially,” said Bracken. “We donate cash to assist them pay their payments or to do one thing particular.”

But they also remembered how the Christmas decorations brought joy into their homes.

Lacey and Dan Bracken met while both were working as firefighters for the Frankfurt Fire Department. Dan is now a fire medic with the Flossmoor Fire Brigade, so the couple have a lot of fire brigade friends.

“We are all good at climbing ladders. We thought why not decorate people’s houses,” Lacey stated. “You never know when your last Christmas will be.”

It made sense to companion with different nonprofit teams doing related work within the space. Last yr they solely embellished homes in Chicago.

But this yr, the Tom Hopkins Foundation, Christmas Without Cancer, Project Fire Buddies and the Finley Forever Foundation have come collectively to type the Lights and Ladders Brigade. Together they embellished 13 homes in Chicago, Frankfurt, Manhattan, Orland Park, Lockport and New Lenox over two days, together with seven on Saturday.

Chris Grande, a Mount Greenwood firefighter and part-time roofer, was keen to do his half.

“We just throw up a ladder, go to the roof and turn on the lights. It’s easy,” Grande stated.

The Goins home was the very first thing on the agenda on Saturday. Maryellen, spouse of Bob Goins. died of breast cancer in February so this would be the first Christmas for him and his three youngsters with out her.

Last December, individuals from Christmas Without Cancer got here by with presents for the household and got here again with Easter baskets within the spring.

“I think it’s great that the organization is still keeping up with us,” Goins stated. “I can’t thank them enough.”

Kurt DeGroot, a member of the Oak Forest Fire Department, stated firefighters from 34 completely different departments in Illinois and Indiana have joined the trouble.

“I’m helping with the logistics here,” stated DeGroot, founder and CEO of Project Fire Buddies, which was based in 2019 to assist households deal with crucial childhood diseases.

People from each church and Catholic college within the space help one another, stated Rich Stack, Finley’s godfather.

“That’s why we live on the South Side. Police, firefighters, teachers, they’re all here,” he stated, pointing to the volunteers.

A fireplace truck, an ambulance and eight firefighters from the Garden Homes Fire Department, the final volunteer hearth division in Cook County, got here to the rescue, Fire Chief Scott Bluhm stated.

Many of the firefighters had not but embellished their very own homes for the vacations, though the Garden Homes hearth station was already embellished for the vacation season.

“I hear about it,” Bluhm stated on the house entrance.

The Lights and Ladders Brigade shaped a caravan of hearth and police automobiles with flashing lights, a truck towing a trailer with ladders and three carts, and a bus for different volunteers from St. Cajetan Church at 2445 W. 112th St. departed at 3pm

Tommy Popp eagerly awaited their arrival at his house in Mount Greenwood.

Tommy was 2 years previous when he was recognized with liver cancer. He underwent liver resection and chemotherapy and can be in remission by the point he turns three, his mom Emily Popp stated.

“In June we got our first scans and they’re clear,” she stated.

Some neighbors, like Kathy Mikaitis, had been knowledgeable upfront of the deliberate actions and got here out to look at.

Mikaitis stated she would not know the Popps properly however wished to point out her help for the household.

“We have eight wonderful grandchildren who are healthy,” she stated.

The brigade supplied 45 minutes per home.

The households whose homes have been to be embellished have been requested what sort of ornament they would favor. For instance, a household would possibly say they like white or coloured lightbulbs, if they’ve a favourite Christmas theme, or if they do not like some issues.

Maybe somebody would not need an inflatable Santa of their entrance yard, Lacey Bracken stated.

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She and a great good friend have a plan for every home, with an image displaying the place every ornament goes.

“We have a shipyard crew, a porch crew, and an umbrella crew,” Bracken stated.

Volunteers are instructed on the place to position every string of lights, wreath, garland, and illuminated determine. And one other individual checks that the directions have been adopted.

“We want to make sure decorations aren’t just thrown up,” Bracken stated.

“We check that the garland is fluffy, the bulbs are okay,” stated Nikki Scanlan. “We check the details and whether everything is in the right position.”

After the vacations, volunteers may also assist take down the decorations if the household requests, Bracken stated.

Kimberly Fornek is a contract reporter for the Daily Southtown.