Respite Reinforced

For families in the FPS program, we offer ongoing support beyond the respite that assists them as their journey with cancer continues. This support continues to address our 7 health pillars and takes place through in person events, online education and access to additional resources, including bereavement care.

For example, FPS partners with corporations, individuals, and schools to provide Christmas cheer in the form of gifts and direct financial support to FPS Families experiencing financial duress and/or the loss of a spouse or parent. Volunteers are critical to this effort and with their assistance, do family to family outreach to ensure our FPS Families’ financial and emotional health is boosted during the holiday season.

We provide complimentary in person events each year to bring together our Respite Recipients and members of our donor and volunteer community!  With over seven hundred attendees at these events, we ensure our families have adequate opportunities to continue to explore ongoing friendships and support and continue to promote the take a break mantra and experience a boost in psychosocial, emotional, physical and family health. We invite our healthcare professionals to these events as well, giving the oncology professionals safe space to strengthen their relationships with their patients outside of the clinical setting.

We understand that for some, the acceptance and management of grief is part of a family’s respite journey. We are here to respond with kindness, dignity and support. Our resources impact spiritual, emotional, psychosocial and family health. We offer peer to peer support with our Carry on Club, a social club for widows and widowers in our Respite Program, and provide reminders of hope like our annual “angel” mailing which includes handmade angel ornaments sent to grieving FPS Families.

We also produce bi-monthly patient and caregiver newsletters which provide educational resources, uplifting stories and nutrition and financial practice information for families.  We also share materials and webinars via our private Facebook group targeted at patients and caregivers.  Most importantly, to assess the unique needs of each family, our patients and surviving partners are put on a call schedule managed by our Program Coordinators in which we connect with them at least 4 times a year in the first year of respite and bi-annually thereafter.  This outreach process also involves a coordinated effort of volunteers and provides a basis for us to recognize what other resources, if necessary, should be shared with a family in our program.

Can you refresh your soul in 5 minutes? Can you create a memory in 5 minutes? Can you change a life in 5 minutes?  At FPS, we say a resounding YES to these questions. 

In honor of our mantra to Take a Break and the vision of our founder Pete Bossow, Jr., we invite all of our FPS Respite Recipients to join our Take 5 Movement!

Pete, diagnosed at 29, thought of others first in his journey.  He asked what he could do to support his young wife Marci, how we could love his parents more and how he could comfort his friends during this challenging time. He put others first and was grateful for the many blessings he had despite cancer.

And then he made a decision – in a matter of minutes, to lay forth a vision of respite that has changed the lives of thousands of people, you included!  And today, thousands of supporters, home donors, travel partners and volunteers have invested in For Pete’s Sake to carry out Pete’s vision, making it a reality for each one of us and our families!

In this spirit of gratitude for those in our lives and the blessings we share, FPS embraces a Take 5 Movement – a mantra that in giving back we gain so much more in return.  This movement comes with a PLEDGE from each one of us here at FPS, from our supporters and now from you as our FPS Respite Recipient!

Welcome to our Take 5 Movement – as together we support the next FPS family, embrace the stillness of respite, and make our world a better place, one person at a time!