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Chesco-based fund gives families place to stay

Eric Yates was diagnosed with glaucoma when he was 13. Doctors eventually told his parents, Cindy and Roy, to take their son to Wills Eye Hospital in Center City for surgery.

Eric Yates was diagnosed with glaucoma when he was 13. Doctors eventually told his parents, Cindy and Roy, to take their son to Wills Eye Hospital in Center City for surgery.

The family lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Eric could not stay at the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House because of food allergies, so his parents worried about living arrangements during their son's treatment.

Then their social worker at Wills Eye told them about a nonprofit that pays for hotel stays for families with sick children - the Kolbe Fund.

Started by a Chester County family with its own sick child, the Kolbe Fund began paying for hotel rooms two years ago. With discounted bulk rates from the hotels it uses, the Kolbe Fund has paid for nearly 1,000 stays near area medical centers for more than 330 families.

"You're worried about the medical part," Cindy Yates said. "They take away the worry about where you're going to stay."

The Kolbe Fund paid for a total of 10 nights for the Yates family. The fund usually pays between $65 and $180 per night for rooms.

"It would have definitely been a hardship," Yates said.

When the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House is full, which is often, social workers frequently refer families to the Kolbe Fund. The fund can book rooms quickly, and families sometimes stay in a hotel until they can get into the Ronald McDonald House.

The Schnittman family in Exton started the fund in 2013 because it saw the need firsthand. Their son, Max, was 4 when doctors found a tumor on his pituitary gland at the base of his brain. He and his family had to travel to a specialist in Boston several times for brain surgery and treatment.

Family and friends raised $7,000 to help with travel expenses. But Max's parents, Kate and Aaron Schnittman, did not want to take the money. Kate, formerly a human resources consultant, and Aaron, head of the Art and Music Department at Church Farm School in Exton, could afford the expenses. But they knew other families were struggling.

So they used the donations to start the Kolbe Fund, named for St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Roman Catholic patron saint of families. Max was named after him.

Max, 9, is now healthy and as active as his sisters, Ellie, 7, and Ceci, 6.

Kate Schnittman stopped working to lead the fund from her home office. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia awarded the Kolbe Fund a $5,000 grant in April, and the fund has raised more than $100,000 overall, according to tax filings.

On Sunday, the Schnittmans will hold their biggest fund-raiser to date, at the Appleford Estate in Villanova from 4 to 9 p.m. They are selling $75 tickets on their website to the benefit, which features food, beer, and live music.

"They took this from their own personal experiences, recognized the needs, and turned it into a passion, a mission, and they've helped so many families," said Anne Marie Florio, a social worker at Children's Hospital.

For some of Florio's patients, the Kolbe Fund is the reason they can start treatment on time.

A hotel room might not seem like a big deal, said Lisa Greer of Chesapeake, Va. But she knows otherwise. Her 12-year-old son, Jackson, was diagnosed with a tumor on his optic nerve a little more than a year ago. The tumor limited his vision to 20/70.

Last summer, Jackson had a negative reaction to his treatments, so he had to make five-hour trips to Children's Hospital, sometimes weekly. Many of the family stays were funded by Kolbe, and now his tumor is nearly gone. His vision is back to 20/20.

"The Kolbe Fund has helped us see the light at the end of the tunnel," Lisa Greer said.

The Kolbe Fund started out serving Children's Hospital and has expanded to Wills Eye, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del., and Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington. The families the fund has helped have come from more than two dozen states.

Social workers at Children's Hospital regularly scrambled to find inexpensive lodging for their patients, said Rachel Biblow, senior director of the Department of Patient and Family Services. Then came the Kolbe Fund.

"It's been a lifesaver," she said.

mbond@philly.com

610-313-8207@MichaelleBond