Meet The Volunteer-Led Nonprofit Working To Minimize Cancer's Financial Fallout In Leelanau

Rent. Car repairs. Gas money. Dental care. Tax bills. Home heating costs. Child care. Pet care. Acupuncture.

These are just a few of the needs that the Leelanau County Cancer Foundation (LCCF) has helped patients and families pay for in the eight years since the organization formed. Though it’s arguably one of Leelanau County’s less visible and less well-known nonprofits, the organization has helped 141 local families and paid out more than a quarter of a million dollars in assistive payments since 2016. And in 2024, LCCF has big things on tap, with a goal of broadening its reach and taking its impact to the highest level yet.

LCCF formed in 2016, though Board Chair Terry Gremel says the organization was operating before that “under the banner of somebody else’s 501c3.” Since becoming its own nonprofit entity, LCCF has been pursuing a straightforward but massive mission: “To help improve the quality of life for Leelanau County residents and their families who are touched by cancer.” Specifically, the organization helps local cancer patients and their families shoulder the burden of any non-medical expenses that may become less manageable due to a cancer diagnoses.

“We help pay for things like rent, mortgage insurance, new tires for your car, car repair,” Gremel says. “What we try to do is get really specific about what each individual needs. We had a woman a few years ago who had the enamel coming off her teeth because of the chemotherapy – that’s a really rare side effect – and we paid for quite a bit of dental work for her. We had another woman who was getting chemotherapy and was going to have to be in a hospital for an extended period of time. We paid for the care for her dog when she was in the hospital.”

The needs are variable, Gremel says, in part because cancer is a monumentally expensive disease to treat. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the average per-patient financial burden for cancer patients is $43,516 for initial care, $5,516 for continuing care, and $109,727 in the last year of life. Those costs grow or shrink depending on the type of cancer, and a patient’s out-of-pocket liability can also run a massive range depending on what their health insurance coverage looks like.

The problem isn’t just medical expenses, either: Cancer patients also often face hardships related to travel and transportation costs, lost wages, and basic needs like housing and food. Statistically, cancer patients are 2.5 times more likely than the average person to declare bankruptcy, and those who do so are 80 percent more likely to die from cancer than patients who don’t.

According to Gremel, these kinds of issues can be particularly pronounced in areas like Leelanau County. Despite the county’s wealth, it also has a notoriously huge ALICE population. A metric created by United Way, ALICE stands for “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed” and refers to households “that earn above the federal poverty level, but not enough to afford a bare-bones household budget.” ALICE households are often only one major emergency expense away from not being able to afford housing, utilities, food, or other basic needs. Based on the latest United Way figures, 46 percent of Leelanau households are living below the ALICE threshold.

The LCCF helps families pay for some of the burdens they face in the midst of a cancer battle, in hopes of staving off the potentially ruinous financial implications of the disease. Gremel says the organization was born thanks to Diane Pare', who years ago created a fundraiser called the “Leelanau La-TEA-Da High Tea” to start raising money for cancer families in the community.

“[Diane] had learned about another county in Michigan that was doing this kind of fundraising for cancer families,” Gremel says. “So, she rallied a bunch of people from the community and got them together for the first La-TEA-Da fundraiser, which is this big, fancy English high tea party that we have every year.” That event, which takes place annually on the third Thursday in June, has historically been the core fundraiser for LCCF, regularly drawing 150 or more participants.

Through the tea and other fundraising channels – including independent donations from local residents and charitable grants from organizations like the Leelanau Township Community Foundation, the Les and Ann Biederman Foundation, The Art and Mary Schmuckal Family Foundation, and Cherryland Electric’s Cherryland Cares program – LCCF is able to donate tens of thousands of dollars to local cancer patients every year.

In hopes of growing that impact in 2024, LCCF is introducing a more ambitious fundraiser this year, called the “Gala of Grace: Compassion for Families with Cancer.” Scheduled for Tuesday, June 26, the gala will run from 6-8pm at French Valley Vineyard in Cedar and will include live music, live and silent auctions, food and drink, and more. Gremel says tickets will go on sale soon and encourages those interested in attending to keep an eye on the LCCF Facebook page.

Because of LCCF’s structure, Gremel tells the Leelanau Ticker that nearly every dollar the nonprofit raises ends up getting sent back out into the community in the form of gifts to patients and families.

“We really don’t have any overhead,” she says. “We’re all volunteers, and the only real expenses we have are for stamps, paper, and ink for the donor letters we send out. People really like that about us, because there aren’t thousands of dollars going to the executive director or CEO of an organization. And it all stays local. To be eligible for funds from the LCCF, there are only two criteria: One is you live in Leelanau County, and the other is you have cancer. That’s it.”

Herself a retired oncology nurse, Gremel is responsible for fielding calls from patients and families who need help. She can be reached at 231-645-2120.