The theme for this year's ICAHN Annual Conference on November 10 in Champaign is The Rural Health Story: Community and You. In the spirit of that theme, we are welcoming guest bloggers over the next few weeks to share their rural health story. Today we welcome Brea Cinnamon, physical therapist at OSF St. Luke in Kewanee, IL. 

Fueling a Future. Honoring Lauren.

In 2020, our family founded a not-for-profit organization in honor of our daughter, Lauren.  Shortly after Lauren was born in 2018, we learned that she had a very rare diagnosis that would require frequent follow-ups with multiple specialists, and eventually two open heart procedures and a brain surgery, all before the age of 3. We were making 1-2 trips per week to Peoria or Chicago for appointments with her specialists and her therapies. We realized how quickly the travel expenses to get to these appointments added up. On top of insurance deductibles and out of pocket costs, we were frequently filling up our gas tank to get to these appointments.  

It was obvious to us that families in our rural communities assume a significant financial burden when taking their children to pediatric specialists, as it typically requires travel to a metropolitan area. While we felt very fortunate to be able to take Lauren to all of the appointments that she needed, we knew that there were likely many families in our area who could not afford to make the trip to get to the specialists and would experience gaps in care. We felt a calling to do all we could to ease the burden for other families in our area who were facing the stress of medical issues like us. During one of our drives to see our daughter's neurologist in Chicago, we came up with the idea for Fueling a Future.

Making the Dream a Reality

We organized Fueling a Future to provide gift cards to gas stations so that we could ease the burden of fuel expenses for families taking their children to medical appointments. Our hope is that perhaps with the money saved from fuel costs, families may be able to use those saved funds to make memories together or go out to eat as a family, making those trips to appointments a little more enjoyable. When we formed Fueling a Future, we knew that there would be several families in our area that we could help, but we did not expect it would have quite as much of an impact as it has.  Since January 2020, we have provided over $13,000 in gas cards to families in areas surrounding Henry, Bureau, and Stark Counties. To request assistance, families complete a simple application or others can nominate a family to us and we will reach out to them. 

Our Story. Our Passion.

Those interested in learning more about the organization or would like to seek assistance can contact [email protected] or visit the Fueling a Future Facebook page. 

Thank you for this opportunity to share our story and passion. We hope that we can reach more families and help ease a little bit of their stress!  Please let me know if you have any questions. Breanne Cinnamon.

Thank you Breanne! The story of rural is the story of you! Join us at the ICAHN Annual Conference, November 10, 2022, in Champaign, IL. LEARN MORE AND REGISTER HERE.

If you would like to share your rural health story in this blog, contact Kathy or Liz.