Who we are?
Cheryl Kay Foundation (CKF) is a non-profit dedicated to the healing and compassionate care of seniors and breast cancer patients by funding grants for their home health care needs, founded by the family of Cheryl Kay Stawovy. She is our sister, wife, daughter, mother, cousin, friend, the “quiet center of joy” in the large Kay family. We lost her to breast cancer in 2013.
She believed that everyone deserves a life of dignity.
We care, so we give… to honor Cheryl Kay.
What We do?
Cheryl Kay Foundation raises money privately through donations and special events to provide caregiving grants and home repair grants to “at risk” or “under-served” seniors in need.
We are vehicles for transformation and healing for seniors and breast cancer patients in our beloved community.
We are here to help each other, and our parents, to live and age with dignity at home by offering assistance with simple activities of daily living. Helping with the simple things prolongs independence and eases the stress of the second act of life. We believe aging at home can be joyful, dignified, and less costly to families and future generations.
$20 provides an hour of care to someone who needs a helping hand.
Hands-on care provides peace of mind and quality of life, promotes better healing, and relieves stress of family caregivers.
Your gift to the Cheryl Kay Foundation goes directly to the care of a senior who is at risk of being forced to leave their home or to heal post-op at home with no support – simply because they need help with simple everyday activities.
Why It Matters
- 10,000 people turn 65 each day.
- 77 million Americans are over 65 years old.
- 90% of today’s aging population – “Baby Boomers” – want to safely live at home with a flexible care plan, independence, and quality of life.
- 8,000 senior citizens are added to government assistance programs each day.
Only 2,000 young adults are added to the work force each day to pay for the programs, establishing an unsustainable situation.
That leaves a big gap. We are here to provide a solution to help fill the gap.
The power of caregiving and offering assistance with simple activities of daily living helps prolong the independence of seniors, and postpones entry into costly nursing homes.
Assistance with the simple activities of daily living – personal care, housekeeping, meal preparation, transportation to the doctor, pet care, and companionship – can prevent a downward spiral from facing the loss of independence and a decline in health and healing.
Preventing hospitalizations, allowing seniors to age at home safely and independently with a custom care plan, and creating community are keys to sustainability in the elder care market.
Helping extend the independence and dignity of older adults is vital to the prosperity of future generations.
We believe everyone deserves a life of dignity.
“Sure I’m for helping the elderly. I’m going to be old myself someday.”
– Lillian Gordy Carter
Mission Statement:
The mission of the Cheryl Kay Foundation is to improve the quality of living and independence for senior citizens in financial need and for women battling breast cancer, honoring both Cheryl Kay’s professional life in home healthcare and her personal struggle with breast cancer.
Cheryl’s Story:
Cheryl Kay Stawovy, sister, wife, daughter, mother, cousin, friend, the “quiet center of joy” in the large Kay family, co-founded an “in home care” company in partnership with her sister Kathi Kay Lenart, and committed her professional life to serving seniors. Together, they built The Sisters LLC, a leading In Home Care company in western, PA and a Home Instead Senior Care franchise. She chose a career path based on caring for others, offering compassion, and helping people keep their dignity. After witnessing the two sisters’ success and passion for serving seniors, other family members were inspired to become Senior Care company owners, too. Providing compassionate caregiving to senior citizens became the extended families’ business.
When she became a breast cancer patient in 2011, her positive, peaceful approach to fighting her disease was exactly how she lived her life. Described as calm, steady, supportive, loving, and kind, she lead with her heart. Cheryl was devoted to helping others heal, even when she was sick, and eventually lost her life to breast cancer in 2013.
It felt natural to her family and circle of friends that her legacy of caring for others continue through the work/mission supported by “Cheryl Kay Foundation.”
The mission for the new, eponymous non-profit was birthed from blending Cheryl’s company mission and her breast cancer struggle. Her family asked each other, “Since we’re in the elder care industry, why don’t we provide short-term home caregiving grants to senior citizens for post-acute and post-op care? We have the ability to offer grants for seniors for “in home care”, and even home repair grants.”
Deliberating on how to best serve patients requiring post-op and post-acute care with the “caregiving grant” concept, the family collected data on caregiving in their own home care businesses, and discovered that 100% of the caregiving clients were women in their 70’s-80’s who had breast cancer, mostly widows with nobody to care for them. The greatest number of diagnoses are for women above 65 years old. These two demographics – seniors and women with breast cancer – are surprisingly connected by aging.
Cheryl’s family had their magic formula to honor her legacy. Cheryl Kay Foundation provides caregiving grants for senior citizens, to ensure that care for them is provided in the comfort and safety of their own homes by qualified and vetted professional home care agencies.
Through special events and fundraisers, the family continuously supports the non-profit with low overhead, ensuring a high percentage of the funding goes directly to the senior care grants.
BE THE CHANGE. WAYS TO GIVE.
Helping breast cancer patients and seniors in need heal comfortably at home by providing simple assistance with activities of daily living is how we keep Cheryl in the heart of our organization. Your generous donation helps to provide home care grants to women with breast cancer post-op and seniors through grants provided to licensed non-medical home care agencies, allowing them to heal, live, and age in dignity in their own homes.
Cheryl Kay Foundation is interested in shining the light on the senior crisis and how it affects us today. It all depends on your point of view.
Millennials
This generation is supportive of crowdsourcing models. They respect our model of funding short term grants for home caregiving of seniors, funded with modest contributions to non-profits like ours, to ease the future burden of debt from expensive senior care facilities, which will befall them as their grandparents and parents age. Our solution creates a bridge to build additional support to keep them safely at home as long as possible, and lowers the family’s and caregiver’s stress.
Baby Boomers
Also known as the “silver tsunami”, this generation is the largest population segment alive today. Faced with bequeathing their heirs a dissipating Social Security fund, they would never choose to burden their children with the cost of elder care if they had knowledge of the pending financial crisis facing their offspring and the next generation. Self-sufficient and financially responsible, this market segment is known as the “invisible” population as they continue to age. The huge financial burden of caring for Baby Boomers has resulted in the rise of home health care agencies, serving them at home as long as possible.
Linda’s Fund
The Sites Family Trust established the Linda Kranias Fund to target the home health caregiving needs of breast cancer patients in Adams County, Pennsylvania, after losing their beloved Linda to breast cancer in 2014. They graciously support the Cheryl Kay Foundation organization to help raise funds for free grant money for cancer patients.