A personal connection ultimately led Brittany Avila Wazny to work at the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation.
“My brother was diagnosed with cancer as a teenager in 2008, and that had a pretty big impact on my and my family’s life,” Avila Wazny said. “I understand what families are going through. I realized how fortunate my family was and how many challenges the families we are providing care for are experiencing.”
While the experience remained emotionally difficult, a children’s hospital was just 10 minutes down the road from her childhood home in the Central Valley.
“My parents, with a fair amount of stress, maintained their full-time jobs and took turns sitting at the hospital,” Avila Wazny said. “We were able to hire him a tutor to stay on track with school and be able to relatively stay full-time working. We didn’t have the loss of income many families experience.”
As the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation’s new executive director, she hopes to support families facing similar struggles. The foundation works with Central Coast families—spanning from Ventura to SLO counties—who have children diagnosed with cancer to provide financial, emotional, and educational support. About 45 percent of the families served are from Santa Barbara County, with about 80 percent of that percentage making up North County residents.
“I was hired by our now former executive director who came in and really realized that the foundation still had incredible programs, but internally the culture was suffering,” Avila Wazny said. “We had high turnover; the ‘nonprofit burnout’ was present. He took an approach in turning our culture, our infrastructure, and the overall health and wellness of the institution.”
As the senior development director, Avila Wazny fundraised to meet the organization’s goals and helped increase the budget and the family programming that clients “have been asking for for years,” she said.
“I think the most significant one and most significant to the families is we increased our financial assistance by 40 percent. Now, qualifying families receive a minimum of $5,000, and depending on their journey, we can do up to $17,000,” Avila Wazny said.
Under the emotional support category, the foundation added individual and marital counseling to better meet the needs of an individual or couple rather than offering only a support group. The organization also adjusted its travel support.
“We found through our families, about 90 percent of families are having to travel for their service or the majority of their treatment. … That cost of travel was weighing on a lot of families of all income levels,” Avila Wazny said. “We have a transportation and lodging fund now where they can receive up to $2,000 in hotel or Airbnb gift cards, four one-way trips in gas gift cards to their treatment center.
“I think that’s just further alleviating that financial burden just simply from the transportation and lodging aspect.”
Now, at the helm of the ship, Avila Wazny is working on the foundation’s next strategic plan to ensure the programs are “available as long as pediatric cancer exists.”
“We are looking at just trying to see if there are other ways we can increase the amount of financial assistance. … We recognize that the average out-of-pocket cost for pediatric cancer is $35,000. Even our $17,000 is just a drop in the bucket,” she said.
When Avila Wazny first joined the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, the team received money to invest in a building that could be close to hospitals and provide a space for families to go and receive services. Now, the team will be “ramping up the hunt” for a building.
“I’m very lucky to be starting this chapter with probably the strongest team I’ve ever had to work with,” she said, “and probably the strongest programs I’ve ever seen.”
Highlight
• The Santa Barbara County Elections Office invites all eligible residents to register to vote in anticipation of the upcoming presidential general election on Nov. 5. The last day to register to vote is Oct. 21. A voter must be a citizen of the United States and be at least 18 years of age on Election Day to be eligible to vote. Voters can verify the accuracy of their voter registration, including residential and mailing addresses, at the California secretary of state’s website, sos.ca.gov/elections/registrationstatus, or the Santa Barbara County Elections Office website at sbcvote.com. Visit registertovote.ca.gov to register or to make an address change or other updates to voter registration. Voter registration cards can be found in several locations, including elections offices, most post offices, and public libraries. The cards can be returned, postage free, to the Santa Barbara County Elections Office—511 Lakeside Parkway, suite 134, in Santa Maria, or 401 E. Cypress, suite 102, in Lompoc.
Reach Staff Writer Taylor O’Connor at [email protected].
