HITCHCOCK — A little party in the family’s back yard transformed into an annual event that honors the memory of a baby.
Ten years ago this October, when Ann Foley of Galveston joined a happy gathering in her son’s back yard, Wade, her first grandbaby, was there — giggling and stumbling across pumpkin-topped haystacks.
The next year he wasn’t.
Blond-haired, blue-eyed 17-month-old Wade Smith had died of leukemia in the months that followed.
Wade’s family was quick to develop Wade’s Funds for Little Ones, a memorial that raises money for other children and families in Galveston County who suffer similar struggles of living with a terminal illness.
“It was a simple decision, a perfect fit,” Foley said, describing how and why the family started having a fall festival in support of the memorial fund.
“Wade had so much fun at that first fall party, and we knew what it was like to live going back and forth to hospitals,” Foley said. “We wanted to give the kids fun and support to the families.”
The first October without Wade was the first October his family worked to create a day of glee for wee ones faced with cancer.
For several years, the children from the Ronald McDonald House in Galveston have attended.
As this month’s ninth annual fall festival benefit for Wade’s Funds for Little Ones approaches, the family is worried about attendance.
“We’re concerned about folks not showing up because of the Hurricane Rita,” Foley said. “We don’t want anybody not to come just because they think it’s been canceled because of all the recent chaos. We want whoever can come to come and bring whatever they can.”
The group needs volunteers to work during the festival, and Foley said there’s a critical need for cakes to supply the cakewalk.
And Foley said the family wants people to come out and join the fun.
Admission costs nothing, and most of the individual events costs a quarter, so it’s affordable for the entire family, Foley said.
The fall festival will feature appearances by clown entertainers from the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, games, prizes, train rides, hayrides, face painting, a moonwalk and a petting zoo. Barbecue dinners and snow cones will be available.
The majority of the proceeds will go to places that work with children who have cancer, including the Ronald McDonald House and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
In recognizing the efforts of this group, The Ronald McDonald House plans to unveil a plaque this month, naming a room in Wade’s memory.
The remainder of the money raised will help those children in other ways.
“Some money goes directly to families who can’t make all medical payments or who can’t afford the gas that gets them to and from the doctors and the hospitals,” Foley said.
It’s important to raise money for these kids and families, she said. But Foley said she and her family have an even higher aim.
“We want those kids to go home happy,” she said. “And we want to give them good memories, even if it’s just for one afternoon.”
+++
What: Ninth annual fall festival benefit for Wade’s Funds for Little Ones.
When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 15.
Where: Jack Brooks Park, state Highway 6, Hitchcock.
