5th Heart & Soul Ball to boost camp for ailing kids

Posted

It was only days after her birth that Gabrielle Dinsmore’s parents, Louise and Jeff, learned that their new baby girl had a congenital heart defect.

Although doctors gave Gabrielle a critical diagnosis, they said they would try to manage the condition. Despite several open-heart surgeries and countless trips to Children’s Hospital in Boston for treatment, her illness ultimately took her life one month shy of her third birthday.

Her family was crushed but vowed to keep their daughter’s memory alive through the creation of the Gabrielle Dinsmore Heart and Hope Fund.

According to Den DeMarinis Jr., the director of the Gabrielle Dinsmore Heart and Hope Fund, the primary mission of the organization is to raise money throughout the year to support the signature initiative of the fund – Gabrielle’s Heart Camp. The camp is the first of its kind to offer an overnight camp experience in Rhode Island exclusively for kids with heart disease and congenital heart defects.

DeMarinis said that Gabrielle’s doctor, Dr. Lloyd Feit, the director of the Pediatric Heart Center at Hasbro Children’s Hospital and the American Heart Association of Southeastern New England, approached the Dinsmore family at an American Heart Association fundraising event. During that conversation, DeMarinis said the doctor told them about a vision he had been working through his mind for nearly 20 years, a vision geared toward kids who have been diagnosed with heart disease and congenital heart defects.

DeMarinis said they “jumped at the opportunity” to bring something of this nature to life in their daughter’s honor. This was the spark for the creation of the Gabrielle’s Heart Camp.

The camp first welcomed youngsters in 2011, but the Dinsmores, along with the support of countless others, have been working tirelessly since then to keep the program alive at no cost for campers. All the money raised through the fund is used to offset the cost of operating the camp so that no family has to pay for their child to attend.

In its fourth year operation, the camp is proving to be a great success drawing more than 60 attendees ages 8 to 15 from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. The annual event is held at Cub World in Burrillville in August and is designed, according to DeMarinis, to give these youngsters the opportunity to enjoy being a kid in a camp experience, but also learn the skills to manage a life with their chronic condition.

Medical professionals of all levels are brought in to speak with the campers, discussing tools, strategies and coping mechanisms for being a child and growing up with their challenges. Camp counselors are also trained to help the campers to achieve success and leave with a much broader base of knowledge.

Because of this, the camp costs approximately $85,000 a year to operate, and therefore the team of supporters for the fund must work tirelessly throughout the year to raise the monies to support such an endeavor. DeMarinis said that the members of the fund organize various fundraising events throughout the year, but the organization’s largest annual event, the fifth annual Heart & Soul Ball, is set for Saturday, Oct. 25 at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick.

The Heart and Soul Ball, DeMarinis said, will be a first-class affair with a live and silent auction, dinner and dancing. The fund’s fourth annual fundraiser grossed over $220,000, and was a sellout bringing in more than 500 guests.

The goal, he said, would be to replicate those earnings. Tickets are still available and can be obtained by calling the agency directly at 270-0612 or by visiting www.heartandhopefund.com. The agency recently opened the doors of a new location on Oaklawn Avenue in Cranston.

In terms of attending the camp, DeMarinis said there is an application process that begins in early February. Interested participants are referred to the fund’s website, where they can download the application and obtain more information.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here