A CRAZY AND REWARDING 54th BIRTHDAY
March 10 - 15, 2018
During the week of December 10, 2018, the foundation didn’t have an event scheduled and I had planned a solo bicycle ride from San Francisco to Thousand Oaks to celebrate my 54th birthday. 540 miles...My friends and family thought I was crazy. A few days before I planned to leave, I heard about a 15 year old by the name of Jack “The Beast” Frye who lived in our neighborhood and was in grave condition at UCLA Children’s Medical Center. He was battling a genetic and terminal condition called Hunter Syndrome. Due to the lengthy hospital stay and enormous medical bills, this was causing devastating financial duress to his family and they were in jeopardy of losing their home. I had never met the family before, so I decided to call Jack’s mom, Kimberly. When I called her, I introduced myself, told her about the mission of our foundation and told her that we had some extra money in our account and that we would like to help them. I also informed her I was leaving the next day to ride my bike 540 miles for 6 days and I would be riding for her son. All monies raised by my ride would go to help Jack! I left the Golden Gate bridge on December 9, 2018 and pulled into my driveway on Saturday December 15, 2018. My brother followed me by car the first 3 days and my daughter Danielle followed me the final 3 days. This was a life changing experience and a huge 6 day fundraiser for my new buddy Jack Frye. My family and I drove down to UCLA Medical Center on Sunday December 16th to meet Jack and his family. They truly had no idea what was about to happen. During the I was gone, several amazing people made some extremely generous donations to help Jack and his family.
When we arrived in Jack’s room at UCLA, we were able give Jack some early Christmas gifts and meet his family and friends. Jack’s mom and family truly had no idea what was about to happen…I hugged Jack’s mom Kimberly and The Jewel Levine Foundation was able to give her a check for over $20,000.
Needless to say we were all in tears and I said “Welcome to the family!”
I am so grateful for our team!
Derek Marquis