‘Family Volunteer Day:’ a day of wrapping, raffles and refreshments

By Amy Nicole

In 2005, cancer survivor Renee Lynn Scott made it her life’s mission to help other survivors and their families when she founded the non-profit organization, Stepping Stone Support.

Survivor’s Helper, a branch of Stepping Stone Support and an annual fundraiser created in 2010 to help families battling cancer have a happier holiday, has provided gifts and necessary winter items to countless people across Long Island. 

This year, they are returning with their “Family Volunteer Day” for people in the community to come out and participate in the event.

“The purpose is to alleviate some financial burden and to bring joy when there is so much sadness in their lives,” she said.

Family Volunteer Day will be held at Atlantis Banquet & Events, a wedding venue located next door to the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead, on Sunday, Nov. 26 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. This will be the first event held in person since 2019, due to the COVID pandemic.

As is tradition, the event has always taken place on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

“We just stuck with that date,” Renee said. “We use it as kicking off the season of giving with a day of service for all ages.”

The two-and-a-half-hour event will include wrapping stations set up with gift wrap, tape and scissors at every table. There will also be a card making station to make holiday cards for the adopted families, guest speakers, 50 raffle baskets valued at over $500 each and refreshments. 

During the original event, which has since turned into a day of volunteerism hosting up to 350 volunteers and community members in year’s past, volunteers wrapped presents on Renee’s living room floor.

This year, Renee said her goal is to fill the donated venue space with 500 people.

People are encouraged to attend with admission of an unwrapped toy or sports ball. Volunteers from Survivor’s Helper will be delivering gifts to over 50 families, directly to their front doors, from Riverhead to Queens on Sunday, December 10.

Families who are sponsored through the holiday program are nominated on their website annually by September 1. The criteria requires a mother or father of a family to be in active treatment for a cancer diagnosis during the grant year and a letter from the treating oncologist if nominated by a friend or family member.

“We have been doing this since 2010 and we have never turned a family away,” she said.

During this year’s return evening, Survivor’s Helper has added guest speakers to the events list and will be having a memorial remembrance of one of Survivor’s Helpers past adopted mother who eventually became a committee member to the organization and passed away the summer of 2022 just before her daughter, an only child, started college.

Since that time, Renee said her late volunteer’s daughter has become like a niece to her and the young woman has brought things full circle having taken her mother’s place on the Survivor’s Helper committee.

“We thought it would be only fitting we honor her mom at this event,” she said.

Aside from hands on help, Renee said one of the biggest and easiest ways people can help Survivor’s Helper is to support by shopping for families through their Amazon Wishlist, “Survivors Helper.”

Inspiration to take Survivor’s Helper to an even higher level of purpose with the formation of Family Volunteer Day initially came to Renee, she said through the Points of Life Foundation and the Daily Points of Light Award.

Formed in 1990 by President George H. W. Bush and carried on by his son, President George W. Bush, Survivor’s Helper became a recipient of the Daily Points of Light Award for several years early on to help fund supplies such as wrapping paper and tape. This started Renee thinking just how Survivor’s Helper could make an even greater impact through volunteerism within her own community and beyond.

“We molded it to our needs as a nonprofit and we really created it as a program that would fit us,” she said.

Building on her inspiration to help others with cancer across Long Island and beyond through a life of service, this past July Renee took another leap forward in with the creation of the Stepping Stone Support S.T.E.P. program (Survivorship-Tone-Exercise-Personal Training) to offer free personal training and nutrition coaching to people affected by cancer.

In partnership with her 23-year-old-son, Brenden Scott who is a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) and Certified Nutrition Coach (CNT) of The National Academy of Sports Medicine is currently leading physical training three times a week for an hour to 9 people in addition to the nutrition counseling.

The fact that physical fitness helps just as much mentally is so important for those in recovery from cancer, Renee said, and the mental exhaustion, lack of time and money it costs to train is a huge hurdle.  As the branches of the tree for Stepping Stone Support, Survivor’s Helper and now S.T.E.P. grows, Renee’s ultimate dream is to one day open a S.T.E.P. center.

“Not only for the cancer patient, but for the family members watching their loved ones battling cancer,” she said.

Aside from helping families this holiday season through Survivor’s Helper, Renee said one of the goals and what’s really important to her is to ask local businesses to encourage their employees to use this event as a day of giving and service to bring their own families together.

This Sunday’s wrapping event will include a list of local businesses who have already committed to helping hands on. Suffolk Federal Credit Union is bringing their employees, Hampton Coffee will be hands on serving coffee with their employees, and for Renee, she believes this is an opportunity for businesses to show their community that they’re supporting the efforts also.

“We are trying to encourage volunteerism across the board,” she said.

Survivor’s Helper Amazon Wishlist:

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/162ZW3SPQZMB5?ref_=wl_share

You can find the most up to date information and future happenings on social media @steppingstonesupport and at http://www.steppingstonesupport.org