Putting family over finance
A charity organization based in
Middlebury Center, PA
What is the Humble Bumble Project?
We are a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to assisting pediatric, adolescent, and adulthood cancer patients and caregivers. The Humble Bumble Project is also a 2019 Tioga County Landmarks award recipient which honors heroes within the community.
A cancer diagnosis is not only devastating, but expensive too. Crucial treatments like surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy cost tens of thousands of dollars. Insurance can help to ease the treatment costs but does not cover the travel related and/or daily living expenses that become harder to pay. The Humble Bumble Project is here to help alleviate the financial burden created by the countless cancer-related expenses and necessities that medical insurance will not cover such as mileage, lodging, meals and incidentals, airfare and day to day expenses.
You don't have to do it alone.
Our Mission
The mission of the Humble Bumble Project is to alleviate even the slightest amount of financial burden faced by pediatric, adolescent, and adulthood cancer patients so patients and caregivers can focus on family rather than finance.
Our Story
An estimated 2,001,140 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States each year which means over two million people will hear the words “You have cancer.”
In October 2016, our daughter, Paige, heard those very words at the age of 20 years old.
A cancer diagnosis is a very humble experience. Humbling to realize just how fragile life is. Humbling to entrust your or your loved one’s life to strangers. Humbling to accept help, financially or otherwise. Humbling to receive unconditional love and support from family, friends, and even strangers. Humbling to discover that no one fights alone.
Paige had an affinity for bees, especially the bumblebee. Aerodynamically, bumblebees should not be able to fly as their wings cannot carry all their body weight. Yet somehow, they make flight possible. As patients or caregivers of a loved one with a cancer diagnosis, you find yourself carrying more than you ever imagined.
The Griffin Family:
Chad, Paige, and Michele
Managing jobs, finances, laundry, meals, family, doctor appointments, surgeries, hospital stays, scans, blood draws, treatments, medications, nights away from home...the list is limitless. You manage to incorporate it all into your daily routine; they become part of your new normal as you take on more than you thought possible. Just like the bumblebee.
Our family was overwhelmed by the love and support from family, friends, co-workers, our community, and even complete strangers. We were humbled by the outpouring, both emotionally and financially. Not all cancer families are as fortunate to receive such overwhelming support. The urge to pay things forward in the form of a nonprofit charitable organization steadily grew and, as a result, the Humble Bumble Project was born.
Many patients and caregivers will struggle at some point with finances during a cancer journey. At the time of diagnosis, patients and caregivers are not only forced to confront fears, make complex decisions, and cope with tremendous stress; they may suddenly face potential financial hardship as well. The additional burden of time and cost exacerbates the stress on patients and caregivers already struggling with cancer's uncertainty.
This is a side of cancer that many do not see or anticipate. Finances are strained by lost income as patients or caregivers often must go on unpaid leave, work reduced hours, or even leave/lose their job to care for their loved one. At the same time, there are new out-of-pocket expenses related to a patient’s care not covered by health insurance. Many patients and caregivers soon find it difficult to find enough money for basic and integral needs: fuel for frequent trips to and from treatments, lodging and food expenses for extended hospital stays or treatments, parking or tolls, groceries for the home, household expenses and utilities, child-care for siblings, or even pet boarding expenses for siblings of the four-legged variety.
The mission of the Humble Bumble Project is to alleviate even the slightest amount of financial burden faced by pediatric, adolescent, and adulthood cancer patients so patients and caregivers can focus on family rather than finance.
Paige always wanted to change the world for the better, and she succeeded. She passed on November 24,2018, but this organization is her legacy. We are dedicated to changing the world for Paige.
The Humble Bumble Project is just getting started, designated as a 501(c)(3) public charity on July 17, 2018.
Please help the Humble Bumble Project put family over finance.
“When someone has cancer, the whole family and everyone who loves them does, too.” —Terri Clark