aTeam hosts annual Heart2HeART visual art fundraiser

There is likely nothing more gut-wrenching for a mother and father than to be told that their child has cancer.

And not only must they cope with that terrifying diagnosis, the parents and their child must then embark on a long, difficult and expensive journey of treatments.

That difficulty is exacerbated for parents from towns and cities around the state who must come to Birmingham for treatment, sometimes for months at a time.

That’s where aTeam Ministries, a Birmingham nonprofit, seeks to help by offering financial support – and badly needed emotional and spiritual comfort – to pediatric cancer patients and their families.

The organization held its largest annual fundraiser, Heart2HeART, at the Bridge Street Gallery and Loft in Midtown on Saturday night, Feb. 11.

Heart2HeART featured artwork by present or former pediatric cancer patients and professional artists who work as pairs to create pieces – one by the professional child and one by the child.

The art pieces made by professionals were offered in a live auction, and the art works made by the young patients were offered in a silent auction.

The well-attended event featured ample food and a reception area on the first floor, and a gallery space and seating for the live auction on the second floor.

This year’s artists were Anderson Thrower, age 9, who was paired with professional artist Katie Adams; Jesse Jamison, age 8, who worked with artist Cassie Ball; Sarah Anne Hicks, age 19, who worked with Annie Butrus; Jordan Miller, age 11, paired with Elizabeth Hubbard; and Meredith Dyer, age 10, paired with Carrie Pittman.

By being given the opportunity to create art, the young patients are aided in expressing their journey with cancer, an important part of their healing process, according to the aTeam web site.

Anderson Thrower’s parents are Andy and Jan Thrower, who started aTeam in 2009 after Anderson was diagnosed with leukemia and they saw first-hand what parents go through.

Heart2HeART began in 2010, according to Andy Thrower, who said that his son completed three years of treatment in 2012 and is currently in remission.

Much of the support that aTeam provides is financial, including help with food, housing, medical bills and other expenses, according to Thrower, who serves as the organization’s president.

“We’ve also made a lot of mortgage payments and paid a lot of utility bills,” he said Saturday night at the event.

In 2016, the nonprofit spent a little over $25,000 assisting families, according to Thrower.

Housing is a major expense for families, especially if they have a patient receiving a bone-marrow transplant, which can require a stay of several months in or near the treatment facility.

“On average, it saves a family on average about $10,000 to stay in one of our apartments over a three-month period,” Thrower said, noting that aTeam has two apartments in downtown Homewood.

Todd and Jenny Clough from Gadsden, who lost their son, Benjamin, to cancer in 2011 even after two bone marrow transplants, were the first family to receive lodging from the aTeam.

Thanks to aTeam, “We were able to make it financially,” Todd Clough said, noting that families from other cities must also continue to make their bills and mortgage payments back home.

“We didn’t have to worry about anything,” he said. “Jan and Andy took care of everything, made sure the cupboard was filled.”

The Clough’s daughter, Taylor, served as her brother’s bone marrow donor.

The aTeam also strives to provide emotional and spiritual support to patients and families.

“We have a prayer time for the families,” Thrower said. “They are not all able to attend. We send out a prayer guide so that they can know that people have prayed for them in whatever situation they’re going through.”

What the organization does “from the spiritual side of it is just showing love as Christ would,” Jenny Clough said.

The organization also provides other services. For example, aTeam helps link families with volunteers who can help fill specific needs, delivers personal hygiene items to family members stuck in the hospital and hosts special events, such as celebrations of milestones in treatment.

Attendee Kim Eaton of Tuscaloosa lost a daughter, Angel, to cancer in 2016, but speaks highly of aTeam. “It’s an amazing organization,” Eaton said. “They helped us a lot.”

The nonprofit provided Eaton’s family with an apartment during her daughter’s illness, but they also offered other comfort and support. “They visited us in the hospital, and just knowing we had all those prayers from all these amazing people was great,” she said.

Angel was also a patient artist at a prior Heart2HeART event.

For the Cloughs, the help they received from aTeam had some unexpected benefits.

Having lodging – first at the Throwers’ home and then at a townhouse – provided them with “an environment of normalcy,” Jenny Clough said.

“It allowed us to be together as a family,” Todd Clough said.

It also allowed Benjamin’s family to make the most of their remaining time with him, according to Jenny Clough.

“Allowing us to stay in a place that was like a home allowed us to be a family for a time frame that we didn’t know would be our last time,” she said. “As we look back on that now, we are able to appreciate that. For so much more than any of the financial or material part of it, just the fact that we were able to have some level of family normal environment … gave us a gift we had no idea we were being given at the time, and it’s priceless in retrospect.”

Since 2009, aTeam Ministries has assisted about 300 pediatric cancer patients from across the state of Alabama and their family members – more than 1,000 people overall – according to an announcement for the fundraiser.

The Heart2HeART event provided almost half of aTeam’s ministry budget in 2015.