Her mom and younger brother, Carson, a fifth grader, had left for what she thought was a normal doctor’s appointment. Carson had recently joined his first tackle football team and kept telling his family, “It hurts when I get hit.” They teased him at first, but his insistence that “it hurts on the inside” sent him to a doctor and, later that day, the hospital.

Lasher didn’t know any of this. What she did know was that her grandmother picked her up from school – strange. Then her dad was already home – stranger. When she walked in the door, her family sat silently on the couch.

It would take three years and ultimately Carson’s passing before she fully understood the scope of his diagnosis. Carson had a rare germ cell tumor that fewer than 10 people had ever had worldwide.

Lasher holds tightly to her memories of Carson, the way a big sister does. She remembers his thick Southern accent, even though they were from Indiana, and how kind he was to his classmates. She even hopes parts of his personality live on in her, especially his sense of humor.

“I would never admit this to him, but he was really funny in a very sarcastic way,” she said. “Sometimes people pick up on my humor and say, ‘Oh, that’s really funny,’ but it’s not truly mine. I picked it up from him.”

The day Carson died, Lasher remembers when it was finally time to leave the hospital, her dad looked at her, lost.

“We had to start making our way out, and Dad was just standing there looking like, ‘What do we do now?’” Lasher said. “I’m like, ‘Well, what else can we do but do good?’”

That commitment led to the creation of the Carson E. Lasher Foundation, which supports families facing pediatric cancer and other childhood illnesses. It also led Carly to raiseRED.

raiseRED is UofL’s largest student-run philanthropic organization, supporting the Norton Children’s Cancer Institute and the UofL School of Medicine. As part of the Miracle Network Dance Marathon, raiseRED connects students to a national movement dedicated to fighting pediatric illness.

The group’s yearlong fundraising culminated in a 12-hour dance marathon on Saturday, Feb. 21, at the Swain Student Activities Center. This year, the Cardinal community raised more than $470,000 in��support of the Norton Children’s Cancer Institute and the UofL School of Medicine.��.��

For her, the organization’s purpose is simple.

“We get a group of over 500 college kids together to fight for something that’s bigger than themselves,” said Lasher, who leads UofL’s raiseRED as its programming director. “We bring everyone together for this common goal of making good in our world.”

Lasher believes Carson would be proud of her work and her college career as a criminal justice major in the . Set to attend law school in the fall, she imagines he would have joined her at UofL. Today, she continues to honor him through raiseRED, the foundation and the bracelet he once wore that she now keeps with her every day.

“We just try to keep doing good in his name,” Lasher said.

And she does.

Watch the video:

Want to participate in raiseRED? or .

Updated Feb. 23, 2026

The funds will benefit ��and the��.

The 18-hour event brings the community together for a culminating celebration with several activities throughout the night. This year engaged over 750 people from students to doctors. A significant part of the event was the involvement of 41 raiseRED families, who are supported by the beneficiary organizations. Eighteen of those families were able to join the celebration in person.

Among the participants was Sophie Boguszewski, a junior special education major in the and a dedicated raiseRED staff member. Sophie’s connection to the cause is deeply personal. As a childhood cancer survivor herself, she understands firsthand the critical importance of the research and support raiseRED provides.

“With raiseRED, I built a lot of skills in advocacy, and learning to fight for what I believe is right when it comes to kids with pediatric cancer — it bleeds into working with kids and special education,” she said. “I have to fight for them as well.”

The 2025 fundraising total brings the cumulative amount raised by raiseRED to over $5.5 million since its inception.

Watch Sophie’s full interview:

Part of the growth in numbers comes as the result of major strides in the areas of affordability, access and equity, meaning Cardinals from a variety of backgrounds can take advantage of learning opportunities and experiences with reduced financial burden. This academic year, UofL announced the��expansion of its Border Benefit Award��that allows students from some neighboring states to attend UofL at in-state tuition rates, along with the investment of $2.4 million��toward the Cardinal Commitment Grant for in-state residents.

UofL jumped 15 places in the 2023-24 U.S. News and World Report����ranking, from No. 146 to No. 131, and also topped the list of “best values” among national universities in Kentucky.��In the past few years, Cardinals have graduated with the second-lowest student debt among all Kentucky four-year public universities.

New leadership helps guide the way

Taking the helm in early 2023, UofL’s 19^th president, Kim Schatzel, spent six months in some 40 listening sessions to learn what was important to UofL’s students, staff and faculty, as well as community and government leaders.

She outlined��her first eight priorities��in September, and those priorities became the basis for a new 2023-2025��. Schatzel was��officially inaugurated��on Sept. 29 in a joyous ceremony filled with music and tradition that was held on The Oval outside Grawemeyer Hall. The historic event took place during UofL’s yearlong celebration of its��225th anniversary.��In recognition of her leadership, Schatzel was named among Louisville��Business First’s Power 50��for 2024, which identifies the city’s most influential people in business and related communities. The Louisville Defender Newspaper also named Schatzel as one of the “Women Who Choose to Challenge” in the publication’s women’s history recognition edition.����

In spring 2024, the university chose Gerry Bradley as permanent executive vice president and university provost. No stranger to the Cardinal community, Bradley had served as dean of the����since 2016 and as interim provost since July 2023. He previously held that same role from January 2022 to February 2023.

Several other top leadership positions have been filled throughout 2023 and 2024, including: Karlis Kaugars, vice provost for information technology services and chief information officer; Dayna Touron, dean, ;��John W. Miller Jr., dean, ; and Kathryn (Katie) Cardarelli,����𲹲�, . This summer, Whitney Nash becomes dean of the , which celebrates 50 years of educating and preparing nurses for distinctive careers.

UofL also welcomed Pat Kelsey to lead the men’s basketball program, infusing excitement and enthusiasm into Card Nation.

Renovations, new infrastructure boost student success

The university is updating facilities and building new infrastructure to ensure students have the physical space to unleash their potential.

�ճ����Center for Military-Connected Students��debuted its newly renovated offices in Brodschi Hall on Belknap Campus. The center focuses on meeting the needs of the more than 2,300 military-connected students enrolled at UofL. At the , construction of a new four-story, $90 million student success hub is underway. It will help us produce the next generation of engineers.

And thanks to a tremendously successful legislative session, the state budget appropriated $260 million toward a new Health Sciences Center Campus simulation center and collaboration hub. That’s the largest amount of funding for a single project in UofL’s history. It also is the largest project being funded in Louisville and represents the most general fund support for any single project among Kentucky’s colleges and universities this session. UofL also received about $69 million for needed repairs on some existing facilities.

UofL’s research and innovation powerhouse flourishes

Research and innovation continued to soar to new heights in academic year 2023-24. Just a few highlights were:

• More than $22 million in funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration was awarded to the Schools of��Medicine ($16 million)���Ի���Nursing ($6.5 million)��for physician and nurse training to help increase Kentuckians’ access to health care, particularly in underserved rural and urban areas. ��
• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded four grants totaling $11.6 million to researchers affiliated with UofL’s��to study factors affecting heart health. Through these projects, they hope to better understand how environmental exposures and tobacco products can affect the cardiovascular system, as well as how remodeling takes place in the heart after a heart attack.
• UofL researcher Cheri Levinson has received an $11.5 million grant from the NIH to continue her work addressing��the devastating effects of eating disorders.
• UofL researchers Susan Harkema, Charles Hubscher and collaborators recently won a $1 million grant from the NIH aimed at helping spinal cord injury patients regain function. They are now among four teams exclusively invited to participate in another competition with a potential prize pool of $5 million.
• More than 100 UofL researchers are among the top 2% most-cited in the world, according to a new��compiled by Stanford University and Elsevier. Citations show the value other researchers around the globe place on UofL research.
• Research conducted in UofL’s Micro/Nano Technology Center is investigating whether the antibacterial properties of��cicada wings��can be turned into an antimicrobial for use in places like food service, health care facilities and medical devices.��
• More than 80 of UofL’s top researchers, scholars and artists��were honored��in October at the 2023 Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Awards ceremony.
• Four University of Louisville innovators have been selected by the prestigious National Academy of Inventors for its 2024 class of Senior��Members.��The four inventors selected from UofL–the only ones from Kentucky–are:��Thad Druffel, Nobuyuki Matoba, Thomas Roussel and Jagannadh Satyavolu.

Commitment to serve, transform the community��

Throughout the 2023-24 academic year, Cardinals have utilized knowledge and resources to advance the mutual needs of the university and the community. Earlier this spring, more than 400 students danced for 18 hours at the annual raiseRED marathon.��

The students raised more than $516,000 for Norton Children’s Cancer Institute and the . This is UofL’s largest student philanthropic effort. It has raised more than $5 million in its 11-year history.

In the mean time, former firefighter James Cripps was awarded one of the ��for teaching firefighters throughout Kentucky about occupational cancer and mitigation strategies. A manufacturing administrator at the UofL Health��, he hopes to eliminate some of those risks.

, meanwhile, celebrated a milestone:��200 years��of compassionate care, medical innovation and serving the underserved. It was Kentucky’s first hospital, first admitting patients in a facility downtown in 1823. Now, to address a real need for citizens south and west of Louisville, UofL Health recently cut the ribbon on UofL Health – South Hospital in Bullitt County just off Interstate 65.

As part of UofL’s ongoing effort to collaborate with five K-12 schools in West Louisville, Central High School Pre-Medical Magnet Program students received white coats this spring, recognizing their hard work and encouraging them to stay focused on their goals. Students shadow UofL doctors and get to practice performing simpler procedures, like sutures, through this immersive curriculum.

Recently, UofL’s McConnell Scholars and others heard a presentation by Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, who spoke about the importance of respect and trust in building relationships to address the country’s most pressing issues. A guest of the McConnell Center, Britt spoke as part of its Distinguished Speaker Series. Celebrating its 30th year, the center also brought��Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, to Belknap Campus Oct. 30. She gave a public talk and met separately with the McConnell Scholars.

Students begin their next chapter at commencement

On May 11, more than 2,000 of the approximately 3,100 students who applied for degrees and certificates, will go across the stage at the KFC Yum! Center signifying their academic success.

This Commencement holds particular significance for the high school class of 2020, which graduated at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. For some, it will be their first chance to celebrate their educational achievement by taking part in a complete traditional ceremony.

UofL President Kim Schatzel will preside at both the 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. ceremonies. �ճ������also will host a doctoral hooding and graduation ceremony for more than 100 graduates at 2 p.m. Friday, May 10, on Belknap Campus in the Swain Student Activities Center (SAC) Ballroom, second floor. All of these ceremonies will be broadcast live at��.

The 18-hour event is the university’s largest student-run philanthropy and generates money for and the

The dynamic event, which included themed hours, karaoke and sports tournaments, kicked off Friday at 6 p.m. and ended at noon Saturday with the heartwarming reveal of the total amount raised. As students on stage flipped signs showing the total of $516,485.76, the crowd of students, patients and supporters erupted in a massive celebration.

The funds raised from the 2024 dance marathon brought the cumulative total over the event’s history to more than $5 million.

Read more about this year’s event.

These are the ingredients that make up raiseRED, the University of Louisville’s largest student-run philanthropy that has raised over $4.7 million for pediatric cancer and blood disorders research and patient support since 2013.

“Fight Like a Kid” is the theme of this year’s raiseRED, which will be held Friday through Saturday, Feb. 23-24, at the Swain Student Activities Center Ballroom.

raiseRED is a dance marathon that benefits UofL’s Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology and the Norton Children’s Cancer Institute outpatient clinic. Participants raise a minimum of $200 per person to participate, with many raising even more.

“Every dollar fundraised for raiseRED goes directly to either research for pediatric oncology or to the patients themselves,” Emilia Perez, a UofL student who was diagnosed with lymphoma in high school, said. “Everything we raise is going to benefit someone personally.”

The event kicks off at 6 p.m., Friday, Feb. 23, and culminates with the big reveal of total dollars raised at the Community Celebration from 10:30 a.m.-noon, Saturday, Feb. 24.

In between, students will kick up their heels. To keep up their spirits – and help keep their eyes open – several mini-themed events are held during raiseRED. Among them are:

• Buzz for the Cure: A long-standing raiseRED tradition, students pledge to shave their head, or do a major chop, during the dance marathon if they reach their fundraising goal.
• Angel Hour: The people in participants’ lives who have been impacted by cancer and blood disorders are recognized and remembered.��
• Mail Call: Letters of support from participants’ loved ones are read to cheer them on.
• Silent Disco: The speaker system goes silent and participants wear headphones to hear and dance to music only they can hear.

It’s the cause of helping others battling cancer and giving second chances that is the core of the effort, said Sophie Doszak, a junior at UofL.

Doszak was swabbed by the during raiseRED in 2022 and received the call last year that she had matched with a leukemia patient.��

“I would not have donated without raiseRED,” Doszak said. “Seeing the impact that you can have on someone’s life made me wish I had gotten on the donor list a long time ago. Most of the time it takes years to finally match with someone, and I was lucky enough to match with someone and give my gift of life to someone who needed another chance at life.”

The event will be beginning at 6 p.m. Friday. For information and to donate,

UofL’s largest student-run philanthropy once again hit it out of the park.

raiseRED, an annual dance marathon that benefits UofL’s Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology and the Norton Children’s Cancer Institute outpatient clinic, generated more than $551,000 Feb. 24-25. This brings the cumulative total raised over the 10-year history of the event to more than $4.6 million.

Participants raise a minimum of $200 per person to participate, with many raising even more.

The 18-hour event featured dancing and a few other events-within-the event, such as:

• Buzz for the Cure: A long-standing raiseRED tradition, students pledge to shave their head, or do a major chop, during the dance marathon if they reach their fundraising goal.
• Angel Hour: The people in participants’ lives who have been impacted by cancer and blood disorders are recognized and remembered.��
• Mail Call: Letters of support from participants’ loved ones are read to cheer them on.
• Neon Silent Disco: The speaker system goes silent and participants wear headphones to��dance to music only they can hear.
• And new this year: The Hypnotic Experience. Hypnotist ‘TG’ Rivers will tap participants to be hypnotized to entertain the crowd.

It’s the cause, however, of battling childhood cancer and blood disorders that is the core of the effort, said raiseRED Executive Director Valerie Tran, a senior majoring in industrial engineering.

“raiseRED is a year-long effort to help children with cancer and blood disorders in the Louisville area, and I’m so humbled to see the courage these kids show,” Tran said. “I know what we are doing and the funds we raise can make a difference in the lives of these children and their families every day.”

Organizers are also working to plant seeds to spread that principle throughout Louisville and Southern Indiana.��

The raiseRED youth philanthropy program encourages local high schools to hold fundraisers in support of raiseRED, inspiring younger students to get involved and, hopefully, continue that involvement in their college careers.

Since 2017, these fundraisers have added more than $189,000 to the $3 million total raiseRED has tallied to support the Norton Children’s Cancer Institute and the School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics’ Division of Hematology and Oncology.��

“The Youth Philanthropy Program of raiseRED gives younger students a chance to become leaders in their own setting and find something they are passionate about,” said Megan Bryant, a senior elementary education major who is heading the program this year. “Seeing their passion for helping people affected by pediatric cancer and blood diseases is inspiring. They are not putting themselves first, and they are making sure they put all of their energy into helping others.”

raiseRED volunteers reach out to area schools (often their alma maters) every year to encourage partnerships. This year for the first time, raiseRED is getting some help from Children’s Miracle Network, which has a team of dance marathon experts that offer advice and support.��

For 2022, four area high schools are planning their own mini dance marathons to support raiseRED. They are Louisville Male (raiseGOLD), Ballard (Dance Maroon), North Oldham (raiseTEAL) and Charlestown Senior, Indiana (pirateTHON).��

pirateTHON, a first for Charlestown Senior High School, shows the power of creating a youth service pipeline: Its creators are sisters Demaria (a senior) and Anneiah (a sophomore) King, whose older sister, DeAsia King, is a raiseRED veteran and this year’s executive director.

“Throughout my time with raiseRED, Demaria and Anneiah have learned a lot about our organization and have even attended various events we have put on,” said DeAsia King, a senior neuroscience major. “My participation and their interest in the cause motivated them to create their own program.”

Demaria and Anneiah King hope this will be the first of many raiseRED marathons at their school.

“When I leave, I want them to continue running pirateTHON even better than this year,” Demaria King said.��

Anneiah King added: “Since Charlestown is such a small town, we can bring our community together as a whole. It’s phenomenal to see all of my fellow students come together and help out with pirateTHON. It will be really nice to continue pirateTHON for the rest of my high school career and hope that it continues when I graduate.”

The 18-hour raiseRED dance marathon marks the culmination of fundraising events held throughout the year, and was last held in person in 2020, when it inadvertently landed in UofL’s pandemic history books as one of the final in-person events of the 2019-2020 academic year.

The 2021 version was an enthusiastic virtual affair that, despite its limitations, still raised more than $507,000. This year, the marathon returns to an in-person, indoor experience that begins Feb. 25 at 6 p.m. and ends Feb. 26 at noon in the Student Activities Center ballroom. Covid-19 protocols will be observed. About 1,000 UofL students participate each year.

With raiseRED’s support, the pediatric oncology and hematology clinic, located in the Novak Center for Children’s Health on the Health Science Campus, has been able to add a researcher and hire a full-time social worker. The center’s director is Dr. Ashok Raj.

The raiseRED website, , is filled with inspiring stories from grateful patients and their families. To donate, .��

The Commonwealth Cup kicks off today and runs through the week, featuring a bevy of events facilitated by UofL’s raiseRED Dance Marathon and UK’s DanceBlue marathon.

The week-long effort provides a fundraising supplement for both schools’ actual dance marathons, which will take place Feb. 25-26 at the SAC Ballroom at UofL and March 5-6 at UK.

The idea of the Commonwealth Cup came about last year when both schools were faced with the challenges of continuing their dance marathons in a pandemic. At UofL, raiseRED shifted to a hybrid model and moved the fundraising reveal to Cardinal Stadium. The event returns to an in-person format this year, but the organization is keeping some of its hybrid elements to maintain accessibility. It is also continuing its ancillary fundraisers, including the Commonwealth Cup.

Last year’s inaugural event had a fundraising goal of $50,000 between the two schools. They ended up raising over $68,000. This year, the Cards and Cats are targeting an $80,000 fundraising goal.

The week includes a diverse lineup of events, both in-person and virtual:

Monday, Jan. 24: A PJ party, 7-8 p.m., virtually or in the SAC 102. Join raiseRED’s Cardinal Crew for a special night of Bedtime Stories with Cardinal Buddies, the children who are recipients of this fundraising effort.��The goal is for each raiseRED student to raise $21.28 in honor of the 2,128 children with cancer treated by Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals every day.

Tuesday, Jan. 25: Commonwealth Countdown, 6:30-8 p.m., online. Inspired by “escape rooms,” raiseRED and DanceBlue participants will come together for a virtual event when teams can complete puzzles and solve mysteries to escape from their breakout room.��

Wednesday, Jan. 26: Just Dance, 6:30-8 p.m., SAC. The Just Dance night includes a step-by-step walkthrough previewing the 2022 line dance from the Line Dance Team.

Thursday, Jan. 27: Mail call for the kids, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., tabling at the SAC by Chick-fil-A. All are welcome to visit the table to write notes for Cardinal Buddies. ��

Friday, Jan. 28: Ignite the Fight. raiseRED students will rally the UofL community to raise $17.98 a person in honor of UofL’s founding year.

Saturday, Jan. 29: Reveal, Kentucky Capitol in Frankfort.

Keep an eye on UofL raiseRED’s social media channels this week to follow fundraising progress and participate in .

Beckham will take over for Band Director Amy Acklin for “Marching Together,” the band’s now-yearly event to spotlight children who are patients of UofL Pediatrics physicians at Norton Children’s Hospital.

Beckham has leukemia and currently has weekly chemotherapy treatment. But the illness hasn’t dampened his spirit one bit.

“Beckham just has this energy; we just knew, ‘Oh man, he could handle it Saturday and beyond.’ So we asked him to be the guest band director for me,” .��

“Our ‘drum major in training’ graciously agreed to get the band off the field at halftime and conduct our fight song.”

Acklin added that several of the songs performed by the band at Saturday’s performance were selected by patients at Norton Children’s.

The Marching Together event highlights UofL’s annual (and largest) student fundraiser, . Organized and conducted entirely by UofL students, raiseRED consists of a week’s worth of events leading up to an 18-hour dance marathon that supports pediatric cancer research at UofL and Norton Children’s.

Marching band members support raiseRED each year, and the band is sponsoring the Marching Together event to bring attention and encourage donations to raiseRED which will be held Feb. 22-27, 2022.

Last year, raiseRED brought in more than $690,000. Due to COVID-19, the event was not held in its traditional format, but rather outside at Cardinal Stadium. The organization plans to revisit its normal format this year and the fundraising goal is $3 million. One-hundred percent of the funds raised go to UofL’s Pediatric Division of Hematology and Oncology and to Norton Children’s Cancer Institute.

Beckham, however, is just interested in getting some practice time in. Earlier this week, he was getting baton handling pointers from feature twirler Morgan Proctor and rehearsing his lines:

“C – A – R – D – S – Go – Cards!”

UofL takes on Clemson Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Cardinal Stadium. To donate to raiseRED, go to the

While that monetary accomplishment is astonishing in itself, it just scratches the surface of the organization’s lasting impact.

Emma Gabbard, a senior nursing student from Fishers, Indiana, has been involved in dance marathons like raiseRED since she was a freshman in high school. Like many involved in dance marathons, Gabbard was hooked in no time. She joined the committee her sophomore year and realized as a junior that she had found her path.

“I was super connected to the families that we were supporting through fundraising and heard the way they talked about their nurses and saw the bonds that the kids formed with their nurses,” Gabbard said. “That’s when I chose to do nursing.”

By the time she was a senior, Gabbard was the president of the Fishers High School Dance Marathon, but she knew she couldn’t leave such a big part of her life behind when she went off for college.

“When looking for colleges, I was super nerdy and looked for dance marathons before I even applied,” Gabbard said. “All six schools that I applied to had dance marathon programs.”

UofL stood out for Gabbard in part because of the nursing program and beautiful campus. Jordan Meddings, her campus tour guide, ultimately helped to sway her decision. At the time, he was applying to raiseRED’s executive board and could answer all of her dance marathon questions.

RaiseRED students’ campus experiences and lives are enriched by the memories they make and relationships they form. They get to see the direct impact the money they raise has on the community. That money funds patient needs, research at the UofL School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics’ Division of Hematology and Oncology and the new beneficiary, Norton Children’s Cancer Institute, which supports a clinical social worker, nurse and child life specialist.

Gabbard got a closer look at this impact over the summer, when she got a job at Norton through the Student Nurse Apprenticeship Program. The dream she had as a junior in high school was reaffirmed. Without a doubt, she wants to be a pediatric nurse.

“[At a meeting] we had to say what raiseRED meant to us in one word,” she said. “For me, that was ‘motivational.’ No matter what I do [to fundraise], it never feels like a job. Whether it’s a meeting or [breaking down] the volleyball courts for raiseRED money, it’s always something I get to do, not something I have to do.”

Every year, hundreds of students from across campus are motivated by a common goal – to improve the lives of strangers tackling the unimaginable. RaiseRED isn’t just about a fun-filled, 18-hour dance marathon. Last year made that very clear.

“In non-COVID years, we’d have an event every month,” Gabbard said. “Last year we couldn’t do that, so we started doing bedtime stories on Zoom. They kind of turned into a bi-weekly talent show and we were able to form more of an intimate connection with the kids.”

Instead of thinking about the next treatment or doctor’s appointment, kids had a chance to just be kids. For the students, it was incredibly fulfilling. The pandemic did not stop them from building relationships with the kids and their families, and although it was more challenging, it certainly did not stop them from fundraising. ����

“At reveal last year, we raised half a million dollars during a pandemic,” Gabbard said. “It struck me that a group of people, no matter the size, no matter the circumstance, can come together for bigger causes to put aside our differences and change part of how we want to see the world.”

Last year’s total, although it didn’t break the organization’s record of $690,921.70, left many speechless. During a pandemic, 1,000 college students navigated unprecedented uncertainties – and changed the entire model of the signature event – to raise $507,203.37 for the kids.��

The money raised by this growing group of students is symbolic of a true community of care. It is symbolic of a year of passionate and determined hard work. And most importantly, it is symbolic of hope. Hope for a future, for better treatments or more time, and for a cure.

“My goal in my career is to make sure that all patients and families feel heard, seen and valued,” Gabbard said.��“This is what I want to do for the rest of my life – make differences in people’s lives … My mission is to get kids a tomorrow.”��