Family Assistance
Candlelighters family assistance puts families first, coming alongside the whole family as they face pediatric cancer and journey through the unknown.
Whether you need rent assistance, a meal in the hospital, holiday cheer, or are looking for resources to help navigate these difficult times for your family, we are here for you!
In-Hospital Family Assistance
Being in the hospital is tough enough. Candlelighters is there for support every step of the way.
We understand that both inpatient and outpatient stays come with their own challenges. We hope that providing in-hospital programs to our families can alleviate some of the stress that comes with them. From meals and snacks to cuddly friends that make pokes easier, Candlelighters’ family assistance in the hospital provides comfort during a difficult time.
Food Pantry
The food pantry at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital offers hearty snacks and small meals to feed hungry tummies any time of the day. It supplements hospital meals for kids and provides meals and snacks for their families who are in the hospital with their loved one. Sourcing and scheduling a meal or snack between tests, Dr. visits, and shots can be challenging and expensive for parents who are needed at the bedside of their sick child. The convenience of a free, convenient meal gives families more time to be their child, and helps to offset the many costs of cancer.
Located in the Family Kitchen on 10 South, Candlelighters food pantry serves nearly 500 families a year. If your family is in treatment, and you have a specific request for food items in the pantry, please email Nicole. If you’re looking to help Candlelighters keep the pantry full, please see our shopping list on Amazon, or contact Salena to set up a snack or food drive.
Snack Cart
After a long hiatus, Candlelighters’ beloved Snack Cart is back at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital! Each Friday, Candlelighters makes the rounds at 10 South inpatient and clinic, offering kids and parents sweet and salty treats and small toys from our colorful snack cart. It’s a nice way to say hi, and bring a little cheer to kids and families when they are stuck in their rooms for long periods of time. It’s sometimes the little things like the snack cart that kids and parents recall the most fondly when they think about meeting Candlelighters for the first time.
If you’re looking to help Candlelighters keep the snack cart full, please see our shopping list on Amazon, or email Salena to set up a snack drive.
Bedside Buddies
Each month, Candlelighters delivers lovable, cuddly Bedside Buddies to children at Doernbecher and Randall who have recently been diagnosed with cancer.
These soft, furry stuffed animals are cheerfully waiting on hospital beds to greet any newly admitted child, and there to cling to for reassurance when a child is facing a painful procedure, chemotherapy, scans, and more. Although they are only a small distraction from the difficult path each child travels with cancer, they still provide comfort and can bring a smile on a tough day.
If you would like to organize a drive for Bedside Buddies, or donate new Bedside Buddies, you can order directly from our Bedside Buddy Wish List. Your order will be delivered directly to our office, where buddies are tagged and then delivered to Doernbecher. If you have any questions about donating Bedside Buddies, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Volunteer Spotlight
Scholarships
2024-2025 Scholarship Recipients
About Candlelighters Scholarships
In 1996, Candlelighters For Children With Cancer established the Candlelighters Continuing Education Scholarship Program. We recognize that families can amass overwhelming debt in medical bills after years of treatment, follow-up appointments, and ongoing medical issues caused by treatment. The journey doesn’t stop for families, and Candlelighters’ support doesn’t stop either.
Candlelighters’ family assistance in the form of these scholarships is awarded to high school seniors or current college students who have previously been or are currently diagnosed with cancer to support their pursuit of a higher education.
2024-2025 Scholarship Recipients
Congratulations to our scholarship recipients for the 2024-2025 academic year, Lucy Stancliff, Alan Guerrero, Felix Duncan, and Isabella Greibel!
Click on the photo on the right to learn more about each recipient.
Scholarship Selection Process
Thank you to our volunteer scholarship committee members for your thorough review of the applications, and the challenging task of selection.
These volunteers have a diversity of backgrounds, including being a parent of a child diagnosed with cancer, a social worker student intern who works with children and teens, and a professional scholarship reviewer.
Candlelighters would like to thank the Hougard and Tilden families for providing the critical funding to support Candlelighters’ 2024-2025 scholarship initiative, in memory of Owen Stolte.
Alan Guerrero
Felix Duncan
Sign Up for Candlelighters Scholarship News!
Sign up to be notified when applications for the 2025-2026 Candlelighters Continuing Education Scholarships open in 2025.
Financial assistance is awarded to high school seniors or current college students who have previously been or are currently diagnosed with cancer and reside in Oregon and SW Washington, to support their pursuit of a higher education.
Isabella Griebel
Lucy Stancliff
Emergency Financial Assistance
The stress of a diagnosis and treatment plan can be overwhelming. Having to deal with bills on top of that should not have to be a worry.
We want to help provide as much support as possible, and get families back to focusing on what matters most: their loved ones. The goal of Candlelighters’ family assistance is less time worrying about paying bills, and more time spent together as a family.
Families who meet the eligibility requirements below and need help on a recurring bill may receive up to $599.00 per budget year (January-December). The amount requested will be paid directly to the institution or business.
Eligibility Requirements
- A family with a child 21 years of age or younger currently in treatment for cancer.
- Some related illnesses treated by chemotherapy, radiation, and/or a bone marrow transplant though technically not cancer will also be considered.
How to Request Funds
- A hospital social worker or hospital medical staff person must apply on behalf of the family.
- Social workers will make the request by having the family fill out an Emergency Financial Assistance application, signed by a parent.
- Parent(s) must sign Candlelighters’ New Family Form, provided by the social worker.
In order to apply for Emergency Financial Assistance, contact your assigned social worker who can help walk you through the process. If you have not been assigned a social worker, please get in contact with Nicole or call 503-719-4244.
Family Spotlight
Resources for Candlelighters Families
Your well-being is important to us.
You asked for more resources and we want to make sure that all of our families are aware of the resources available to them so we have compiled this PDF* covering a broad range of organizations, information, and support as you navigate this journey.
Within this resource PDF you will find cancer-specific resources by category, grief and bereavement support resources by location, and general (not cancer-specific) resource guides by county in Oregon.
General Resources*
Please see below for ideas on keeping busy at home, as well as links to other websites with comprehensive resources lists, information on COVID-19, helpful apps, and more.
If you have ideas or links to resources that you think would be useful to our community, please email Nicole.
Fun Things To Do at Home with Kids
Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems
Mo welcomes you into his studio at home and guides you through drawing and writing activities.
Storyline Online
Listen to story time featuring celebrated actors.
Activities for Kids
Book lists and articles to help encourage learning and engagement.
Bill Nye Home Demos
Science experiments to try at home.
Tiny Beans Fun & Games
From the best games and books to DIY crafts and experiments, find everything you need for hours of entertainment.
18 At-Home Ideas to Keep Kids Busy
Useful resources to help keep kids busy, entertained, and learning at home.
Simple Activities with Kids
Easy ideas to help pass the time and make memories.
Virtual Ways to Pass the Time
Aquarium Live Webcams
- Aquarium of the Pacific
- Clearwater Marine Aquarium
- Georgia Aquarium
- Monterey Bay Aquarium
- National Aquarium
- Tennessee Aquarium
Zoo Live Webcams
Comprehensive Resource Lists
Food Pantries
Search for food pantries in your area, plus resources for subsidized groceries.
211info
Search by service type and location—or use the Guided Search—to locate services for housing and shelter, utility assistance, childcare, transportation, employment, financial wellness, and more.
Oregon Statewide General Resource Sheet
Includes resources for COVID-19, mental health, parenting, food needs, and education.
Washington Community Services
Community resources and assistance (including financial, food, and medical) for Washington State.
COVID-19 Resources, Information, and Support Guides
General Resource Lists & Support Guides
- U.S. Federal COVID-19 Resources
- NAMI COVID-19 Resource and Information Guide
- COVID-19 Emergency Relief Resources for Portland & Beyond
- Community Resources for COVID Impacts for Lane County & Oregon
- Coronavirus Support Guide: How to Stay Strong & Navigate This Time Together
Employment-Related Resources
- U.S. Department of Labor Coronavirus Resources
- USDOL Wage and Hour Division Essential Protections
- Oregon Workers’ Compensation Division COVID-19 Updates
- COVID-19 and Oregon OSHA
- Oregon Coronavirus Layoffs: What to Do When You’ve Lost Your Job
- Washington State Employment Security Department COVID-19 Information
Cancer-Specific Information
- COVID-19: What People with Cancer Should Know
- Coronavirus, COVID-19, and Cancer
- What Cancer Patients, Survivors, and Caregivers Need to Know about COVID-19
Meditation & Mindfulness Apps
Aura
A personalized, all-in-one app for emotional health.
Exhale
An emotional well-being app designed by BIWOC specifically for BIWOC.
Headspace
Meditation and mindfulness for any mind, mood, or goal.
Insight Timer
Free app for sleep, anxiety, and stress.
Meditation Studio
Includes curated courses and collections for delving more deeply into specific topics and areas of life.
The Mindfulness App
Offers an introduction to mindfulness, guided meditations, timed sessions, and more.
Smiling Mind
Practice free daily meditation and mindfulness exercises.
Helplines and Crisis Lines
Crisis Text Line
Text HOME to 741741 to connect with a Crisis Counselor for free, 24/7 support.
Domestic Violence Support
Call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), chat live, or text START to 88788.
National Suicide Prevention
Free, confidential, 24/7 support: 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Eating Disorders
Chat online, or call or text 1-800-931-2237.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Free, confidential, 24/7 treatment referral and information services: 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
*Please note that we are not affiliated with and do not endorse or recommend any organizations or activities referenced within these resources outside of those provided by Candlelighters For Children With Cancer.
Family Activities
Stay up to date with Candlelighters!
Lucy Stancliff
Bilateral Retinoblastoma Survivor
Course of study: Public Health or Human Biology at Utah State University
Candlelighters has been a huge part of my cancer journey since my first week of treatment at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. I don’t remember this, but my parents have often talked about their introduction to Candlelighters with the warm meal of Italian food that was served in the toy room at the hospital on one of the first nights we were there. Since then, my family and I have been actively involved in our local Chapter of Central Oregon, and some of my and my siblings’ best memories are of Candlelighter family activities.
At seventeen months, I was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma. My doctors discovered 12 small tumors in my right eye and, more concerningly, one large tumor that almost completely filled my left eye, and was making its way to my brain. Despite being in the very unlucky category of being among the .02% of children in the U.S. diagnosed with cancer each year and despite spending my childhood years in a potentially trauma-inducing place, my medical team did all they could to make the best of my situation. This has had a huge impact on me and how I see the invaluable impact good, kind, and caring people can make in other people’s lives. And this is exactly the type of person I want to be. My experiences of countless surgeries, chemotherapy sessions, MRIs, hospital stays, blood tests, cryotherapy, anesthesia, and platelet transfusions were somehow made manageable to me as a young child and became fascinating to me as a teenager.
The next step for me is higher education. I have worked hard to do my best in high school, and despite some setbacks, was accepted into the Honors Program at Utah State University, where I will major in either Public Health or Human Biology. Subsequently, I plan to attend medical school, in hopes of specializing in pediatric oncology, allowing me to inspire and serve children that are in the same situation I was once in.
Candlelighters has been a huge part of my cancer journey since my first week of treatment at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. I don’t remember this, but my parents have often talked about their introduction to Candlelighters with the warm meal of Italian food that was served in the toy room at the hospital on one of the first nights we were there. Since then, my family and I have been actively involved in our local area of Central Oregon, and some of my and my siblings’ best memories are of Candlelighter family activities such as trips to the pumpkin patch, the amazing Christmas parties at Eagle Crest and at Healing Reins Ranch, swim days at the Madras Aquatic Center, being on a Candlelighters float in the Redmond 4th of July parade, and of course, Camp Harlow. Not only were these fun and wonderful experiences for me, but I know they meant a lot to my three brothers, who were also affected by my diagnosis.
Alan Guerrero
Living with Leukemia
Course of study: Chemistry at Portland State University
As much as I wish this period of my life never happened it has also shaped a fundamental aspect of who I am today. It has taught me a lot to appreciate the little moments, the calmness, the
storms, and most importantly the people around us. Understanding and knowing that this can happen at any moment taught me to live life to the fullest.
The core reason I desire to pursue education is my interest within the field of chemistry. I decided to major in chemistry because of my chemistry teacher in high school, he made me incredibly interested in the subject. It felt like a whole world opened up, I knew in the back of my head that this would be an interesting field to study due to the many possibilities of the subject. Once I got diagnosed with cancer I remember one of the first things my nurse case manager mentioned to me was that you could write a whole chemistry thesis based on a medicine that is being used to treat my kidneys. This sparked an even deeper interest into understanding the chemical world and its applications in our life. At the moment I’m not sure what I wish to pursue within this field
but I know my natural curiosity will lead me to where I best belong, and that will bring me great satisfaction. If I can endure the brunt of cancer treatment, I can realistically do anything I put my mind towards. Even if it gets hard I can recall my experience and know I can do it which is valuable as I go into tougher subjects.
A cancer organization I participated in, and which had a massive impact in my life was my experience at Camp UKANDU. While I was apprehensive about attending, my
parents convinced me to go. Since I was diagnosed for the most part I felt by myself, being forced to go to an online school to graduate, and not being able to go out with my
friends and be a teenager was very difficult. During this time I really had no one to go to that had an idea of what I was dealing with. At camp everyone has had cancer, is
dealing with cancer, or has a sibling that has cancer. Everyone had this shared experience which made it easier to relate to others as while their experience is unique
they were able to understand more directly what it was like. This made me feel more at peace and more understood. Another aspect that helped me was meeting a couple of
other Latinos. Seeing people that looked like me who dealt with the same disease as me being healthy helped me a lot in finding strength to push onward and move past this
ugly disease.
Felix Duncan
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Course of Study: Arts at Western Washington University
My perspective on life has been set on a new trajectory since the day I was diagnosed. All these years later I can trace the roots of my perspectives back to my experience with cancer. Cancer has embedded within me a constant appreciation for my life and the lives I’m surrounded by.
My experience with cancer has shown me first hand how far a person can put forward care for another person. It’s taught me how, and put the want to return that care back into
the world. Cancer has shown me how to be strong within the bad and how to keep fighting, to live life with the knowledge that people may also be fighting with something
and it’s not always externally seen. Cancer has taught me that every life is of value. Cancer has taught me so many things in spite of the harm it causes. The rebirth and growth that pain causes. I doubt I would be the same person without the lessons I’ve been taught from it and the community that surrounds it.
What drives me further in my education is a pursuit of learning – beyond the classes and courses I’ll be taking. Within college I know that I’ll be
on my own in some sense for the first time. That I can fall harder than before, but that’s not a reason to refuse to climb the ladder. The responsibilities, self discipline, time and
budget management plus so many other life skills I’ll learn pull me towards this pursuit. The baseline is I want to learn, to gain and utilize the array knowledge I can acquire.My goals are often linked with my passions. Whether it be a passion for the arts like storytelling and sculpture or something. I want to be able to see the art I’ve created when it’s all said and
done.
I’ve had a childhood of memories filled with the many amazing events, camps and friends born under candlelighters work. Friends I met over a decade ago at these camps
that I still cherish to this day. Stories and lives I’ve crossed in places fostered with kindness that allowed me to feel open and myself, free of anything holding me back. I
remember looking forward to each yearly event with as much excitement as I did a holiday. Candlelighters really was a light in the darkness at times for me. I’ll eternally be
grateful for the joy and help that Candlelighters has provided for my entire family.
Isabella Griebel
Living with Hodgkins Lymphoma
Course of Study: English with Creative Writing Emphasis, Walla Walla University
While courage is bravery, the ability to charge into battle, face a particularly hard dose of chemo, or confront a family member who has crossed
boundaries…it is also community, and community triggers courage.
Having cancer, I learned quickly what people thought courage was supposed to be. Courage was me fighting for my life, wondering if my time was running out, memorizing the faces of my loved ones in greater detail than ever before because I didn’t know if there was a deadline on how many more times I could appreciate them. I was courageous when I continued to show up at church or school after chemo. I was brave after my transplant, I was brave after diagnoses; initially in 2018, then relapse in 2019, 2021, 2023–I was brave while I experienced these awful, heartbreaking things. With cancer, in my opinion, there is a strangeness to bravery. Yes, I am brave, but I do not want to be. I have to be in order to survive, so am I brave, or am I just surviving? Am I brave, or is it too uncomfortable for you to think about and discuss how hard it is to be a child and fight cancer? I was brave, but I was also tired, sad, and weak. I was brave, but I was also so fearful of death and so fed up with cancer. So I dove into books. One of the biggest lifesavers during that time was writing and reading.
I wrote an entire 80,000 word book during the first years I was fighting cancer, and I read dozens upon dozens of books. Words are precious to me, and they make up so much of the fabric of my life. During the months of the initial fight, I wrote and I wrote and I wrote. It was one of the only things that kept me sane, kept me feeling human and gave me an identity. Then, as I got better, I was hired to work at a summer camp. I spent two months away from the people who had witnessed my illness up-close, or as close as I allowed them to. I was no longer just “the girl with cancer.”
Courage, in one of its most distilled and powerful forms, is community. What holds me up while I fight cancer? Community. So yes, I am fighting cancer. I have been for over five years now. But I also have a community that I can return to after the battles I fight to win the war. What drives me to continue living? The knowledge I can expand my community in college and life, because the longer we live, the more we learn and the more people we meet. I am no longer worried over my identity, of being the “sick girl,” and am no longer resentful of bravery. As a writer, my craft has been deepened by my experience with cancer, the urge to find more words to articulate what I’ve gone through is even stronger. If I can fulfill my dreams of teaching and writing books, the community I could build could reach thousands.