What is HCM Foundation?
HCM Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing opportunities and financial support to cancer patients, survivors, and their families. We are incorporated in Emmaus, PA and our outreach spans from the top of the Lehigh Valley all the way to the bottom of Philadelphia!

The letters HCM come from the name Harvey Carl Marsteller who is my Dad. He passed away from colon cancer one month after his 30th birthday which also happened to be a few days after my first birthday. HCM Foundation is for everyone and anyone who has been touched by cancer and those who want to help. We want to form lifelong relationships that do amazing things along the way.

How did you first come up with the idea to create the foundation?
I like this question because I do not think many people know what really sparked the true idea. Early last year (2009) one of my brother’s friends passed away from cancer. He was in his mid 20s, had a wife, two very young children, and a bright future ahead of him. I remember my brother first telling me about him and explaining how he was in the hospital, losing weight, the cancer had spread all over, and there was nothing more they could do. It hit me so hard because I identified with the situation and all I could think about were his kids and his wife. What is life going to be like for them when he dies? There I stood at 26 years of age and I thought about my experiences over the last 25 years of my life and realized those experiences are going to be somewhat similar to the experiences for these two kids and their mother over the next 25 years. I kept thinking, ‘I wish I could help, I wish there was something I could do to help because I feel like I lived what they are about to go through.’ It really consumed me for weeks on end and it was all I thought about from the moment I awoke to the moment I went to bed. The reality then was that there was nothing I could do to help this family. I needed to change that, it needed to happen now, and I needed to get others involved.

How many people are directly involved with HCM Foundation?
When I started to formulate solid ideas and develop a business plan, I then needed to create a board of directors. It was important to select people I respect, get along with, who I trust have a high level of morality and ethics, maintain a high level of determination, a desire to be different, and possess the courage to try things other people may shy away from. So we have Paul Aemisegeo, Mike Carriglitto, Chris Garges, and Alex Barth. You can read more about them on our website! These guys are unbelievable and are very active with HCM. All of HCM’s ideas come from our collective minds.

We also have so many other people who help out and I think it is absolutely incredible. I am not sure if they would all like their name mentioned so I will keep it anonymous! But rest assured there are many of them!

You recently had your first event, the Run Daddy Run 5k in New Jersey. What were some of the highlights for you from that race?
WOW, Run Daddy Run was so great! I have three special highlights from that event. The first was the opportunity to enjoy it with my friends and family who came out for the event because these are the people who really helped get HCM off to a great start. I felt this event was a great platform for everyone to see what it is really about. The second highlight was presenting Sam Rayhon the first HCM Scholarship, which was $1,000. I was so excited for this. There she stood in front of everyone, the participants, who contributed to her scholarship. It was raw emotion, power, and incredible motivation. This is what HCM is about! It really made me feel like we are starting to make a difference in many ways! The third highlight was enjoying the presence of the people who came out to participate. I left Kingwood Park with so many new friends. Once the race started, I went to the finish line so I could see everyone cross the line and give them a hug or slap hands. There are certainly some great hand slappers out there and also very big smiles crossing the finish line! These three things were the most valuable for me at Run Daddy Run and they will certainly stay with me forever!

You presented your first scholarship at the Run Daddy Run 5k. You will present two more scholarships at your upcoming event in August, the Fox CHASE AWAY CANCER 5k. Can you explain how you select the scholarship recipients and how can one apply for your scholarship program?
I love our scholarship program! The goal is to locate students who have been significantly impacted by cancer, whether they have had it or a family member has had it, and we want to know what they learned from this experience and how they are going to go out into the world and do amazing things with what they learned.

We formed a five person scholarship committee, separate from the board of directors, to review and score the scholarship recipients who are evaluated based on five different criteria. The first criteria is they must have been accepted or already enrolled in a two or four year college, university, or technical school. The second is the submission of written recommendations from one teacher and one personal acquaintance and how well do these letters describe the applicant as it applies to the purpose of the HCM scholarship. The third criteria is a typed essay answering the following three questions: How has cancer impacted your life? Based on your experiences, how do you feel you can use those experiences to give back to the community? And why do you feel you should be awarded the HCM Foundation Scholarship? The fourth evaluation criteria is academic performance (SAT scores, GPA’s) and the fifth is volunteer work, job experience, and activities outside of school.

Each scholarship committee member individually reviews each application and scores each applicant on a number scale based on the criteria and how well they feel the applicant meets that criteria. When each committee member is finished reviewing all of the applicants, we add up the numbers and select the highest scored applicant. We do it this way because we feel it is fair to the applicants, ensures we maintain the integrity of the purpose of the scholarship, and prevents influence from other committee members. For the scholarships we are awarding at Fox CHASE AWAY CANCER we had 15 applicants and we found this selection process to work well, but are always in the process of making it better.

Our scholarship program is currently closed for 2010. So this means after our Fox Chase event we will not be awarding any more scholarships this year. However, stay tuned later this year in December when we announce the 2011 HCM Scholarship Program. It is going to be amazing! Our scholarship program is more than awarding the $1,000. It is about new relationships formed with young individuals and working together to take what we both have learned and make an impact within our community. Our 2011 program will certainly reflect this more than it has this year. Just wait!

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