DreamRides Curaçao

Fundraising for childhood cancer in Curaçao

DreamRides Curaçao: Fundraising for childhood cancer

Every year, about 5 to 6 children in Curaçao are told that they have cancer. For them and their parents, the world collapses at such a moment. Fortunately, the care is well organized, with the best medicines and treatments, like in the Netherlands. However, the children are first sent to the Netherlands to receive the start of treatment in Europe’s largest childhood cancer hospital, the Princess Máxima Center. They usually stay in the Netherlands for six months, but often longer. When the children are stable enough, chemotherapy can be continued in Curaçao. This often takes another 1.5 years. Fortunately, in most children the cancer does not come back after treatment.

DreamRides Curaçao collects money to support the family of the child and the child with cancer itself. The Curaçao resident Gerd Glaudemans and the DreamRides Netherlands team will make an incredible bike ride of a total of 822 kilometers with an incline of 20,000 meters over various mountains and past many cities through the Swiss and French Alps. With this he collects money for a special purpose within the Ronald McDonald House Charities Foundation Curaçao: the childhood cancer fund Curaçao.

Minimum Fundraiser Goal: $20,000

The proceeds achieve two goals:

Family support

Life is not only turned upside down for the sick child at the time of diagnosis. The parents will also have to be there for him or her. But what will happen to their jobs? With the siblings? The house? One of the parents will be reimbursed for a plane ticket to come along. But who pays for the other parent? And if the siblings come along? Sometimes housing in the Netherlands is insufficient or too far from the hospital. Sometimes help is needed with (winter) clothing, insurance, school, etc.
A large part of the proceeds goes to support the family around the child with cancer. Because without the loving support of his family, a sick child in a foreign country will not get better.

Celebrate life!

Childhood cancer treatment is not about the risk of death. Despite the heavy treatment, the chance of getting better is fortunately high. But for that a child with cancer has to receive a lot of medicines, operations or radiation. The other part of the proceeds goes to wishes for children who fall outside the regular treatment. The goal is to carry on, to stimulate perseverance, in order to ultimately get a better outcome after chemotherapy. At regular moments during the treatment on Curaçao, life will be celebrated (“celebrate life”), which includes small incentives (e.g. a beaded necklace) during annoying procedures or at milestones, and of course a big gift at the end of the long treatment, by which hopefully a great wish of the child comes true.

As a pediatrician working on Curaçao I support the fundraising project for the Ronald McDonald House Charities Foundation Curaçao: the childhood cancer fund Curaçao! Help DreamRides Curaçao reach their goal with this fundraiser. Thank you in the name of the families who have to deal with childhood cancer.

Patricia Philippi

Dreamrides Corporate Sponsor Packages:

Silver

Tax deductible
Your logo on the cycling shirt 'Dreamrides 2022'
Your logo on the RMHC website

$750

Every dollar brings us closer to our dream

Gold

Silver package
+
Dreamrides cycling shirt in your own size (with your company's logo printed on the back in large format)

$1500

Every dollar brings us closer to our dream

Platinum

Gold package
+
An inspiring tour for two of the Curaçao Medical Center including a visit to RMHC Curaçao

$2500

Every dollar brings us closer to our dream

Our Corporate Sponsors:

Platinum Level

Gold Level

Silver Level

A message from Gerd Glaudemans:

A serious cycling accident in 2019, in which I broke my hip and shoulder in several places, made me realize that good health and mobility are not self-evident and that there is a great need in society for helping fellow humans in difficult circumstances. That's why I want to contribute to an explicit charity every year. For 2022, this will be Dreamrides, in collaboration with the Ronald McDonald House Charities Curaçao Foundation, a Curaçao foundation that has been doing great supportive work in and outside the hospital for years. The fact that this event concerns childhood cancer makes it extra special if you have three children of your own that are growing up in good health, something that one might 'just' assume as a parent. Children with a disease are dependent and vulnerable. Because the environment often focuses mainly on treating the disease, these children are ending up unwittingly in an adult world. I believe that children should be able ‘to be just children’ and face a carefree future!

Gerd Glaudemans

A message from Stichting Prinses Wilhelmina Fonds:

Stichting Prinses Wilhelmina Fonds is very pleased with and endorses the initiative that Gerd and his team DreamRides Curacao have launched to raise funds to support children with cancer/ their families and also to raise the awareness on childhood cancer and its consequences. Stichting Prinses Wilhelmina Fonds, is involved as one of the nonprofit organizations in the lives of the respective child and their families, whereby we assist them with guidance and assistance during their journey, also in the aftermath of this. This includes psycho-social support and in some specific cases, economic support is also provided. We encourage you to donate to this great cause! This initiative builds on collaboration and the compassion to your fellow citizen, to strive for a common goal whereby children must stay children, despite the circumstances!