Our son Owen was diagnosed with 22q in June 2012 at 14 months of age. After our initial shock, we allowed ourselves a day-long pity party before we decided we had to do everything we could to find out more to help him and others. We were immediately introduced to the Dempster Foundation and felt extreme relief that there was a foundation already in place. We did, however, still feel a bit lost. We learned that the foundation was still in the beginning stages and realized the best thing we could do was to raise money for the Dempster Foundation. My husband and I both work and we have children aged 5,4,3, and 2. We don’t exactly have a lot of time and energy at the end of the day, but were willing to give it a shot. We wanted to do something that involved Owen, but at the same time raised some serious money and spread awareness. We contacted the minor-league baseball team in our area, The Windy City Thunderbolts, because what little boy doesn’t love baseball? They offered to give half the proceeds of admission right back to the Dempster Foundation. We were officially now fundraisers! We made a Facebook Event page and invited all of our family and friends. We were hoping to sell 300 tickets. Our fundraiser is June 19th and to date we have sold over 1000 tickets. That means $5000 is going right to the Dempster Foundation. Our hearts are bursting with excitement. We started out wanting to “pitch in” just a little bit and are amazed by what we were able to do with minimal effort. We live on the south side of Chicago in the Beverly neighborhood and the response we received from our neighbors is truly overwhelming. What we really learned is… all you have to do is ask!

Eileen & Joe Barrins

Proud parents of Owen