Lafayette business helping area cancer patients with basic unmet needs

LAFAYETTE, Ind. – There's a business in Lafayette that many people may not know about, though, that doesn't overshadow its important presence in the community.

The Community Cancer Network, sometimes referred to as the CCN, has been in operation in Lafayette for 17 years. The network was founded in 2007 by five local physicians to help patients in cancer treatment, and their families, access basic unmet needs causing stress and hardship in their lives, according to the CCN webpage.

“It’s not unusual for people to not know we exist because we don’t spend money on marketing,” Executive Director Jessica Morin said. “We want all of that money to go back to our clients.”

Located at 2150 Elmwood Ave. in Market Square, the mission of the Community Cancer Network is to support non-medical needs of Lafayette area cancer patients in collaboration with care providers and other community resources. Cancer patients in the Tippecanoe and 11 surrounding counties are connected to the CCN through their physicians.

The network serves patients in Tippecanoe, Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fountain, Jasper, Montgomery, Newton, Warren, White and Pulaski counties. Patients can contact CCN at 765-446-5464 or by email at director@ccnhope.org.

Each year the network hosts a Festival of Trees Gala, a fun-filled evening for the community to participate in a live auction, silent auction and cocktail hour as a major fundraising event during the holiday season.

Tickets are no longer available for this year’s gala, scheduled for Friday, Nov. 17, but community members can still participate in the silent auction online. The link is also reachable through the Community Cancer Network Facebook page — where the most up-to-date information about CCN can be found.

“Our silent auction is available for everybody whether they are in attendance at the event or not,” Morin said. “Accessing the auction is the same for everyone–through the link–and the silent auction has way more stuff in it [to bid on] than the live auction.”

The “Festival of Trees” fundraising concept is well known across the country; sponsors can either purchase a wreath or a Christmas tree that they are given to decorate and contribute to the auction for bidders to purchase.

“For example, Arni’s (pizza) always knocks it out of the park,” Morin said. “They decorate a tree and it is marketing for them because they do their orange-and-brown theme colors and place their pizza boxes underneath the tree as ‘presents.’ The pizza boxes all have different surprises in them like free pizza for a year, a pizza cutter or other additional perks that add to the value for the bidder.”

Each silent auction wreath or tree is similar in style, Morin said, in the sense that bidders can expect to find “hidden gems” within the wreath or tree on which they bid.

Live auction bids are even more glamorous; featuring live trees of different themes sponsored by different businesses or individuals, Morin said. One year, Inspired Fire sponsored a live tree with hand-made, hand-blown glass ornaments all over, she said. The hidden surprise? The tree also included a trip to the Amalfi Coast in Italy.

“It is a one-of-a-kind event and you get to leave knowing that you have been able to help so many people,” Morin said.

The morning after the Festival of Trees Gala is another Community Cancer Network event geared toward children — Breakfast with Santa. Children and their families get to eat breakfast, sit on Santa’s lap, take photos and tell him what they hope for for Christmas.

“We always wanted the Festival of Trees to be more than one night, so this was our way of including children and reaching other demographics so they can learn about what we do,” Morin said.

At the core of the Community Cancer Network is, simply, trying to make life easier for cancer patients in the area. Because of this, Community Cancer Network offers an array of services such as their own food pantry available to patients and their families on an as-needed basis, a wig salon, rides to and from appointments, financial assistance and anything additional they can do, Morin said.

“For example, we have pet food in our food pantry because we had a client say she was worried about her cat and didn’t have enough money to buy his food because of the cost of her treatment,” Morin said. “She was feeding her cat Cheerios and thought that he was going to die because he refused to eat the cereal.”

Morin sent out a mass email and text message to CCN’s volunteers and, in a matter of hours, the food pantry was stocked with not only cat food but dog food as well, she said.

“If there is a service we cannot provide, we will partner with other nonprofits and businesses to try and put everything a client might need under one roof so that we can be a convenient one-stop-shop for them,” she said.

The “Network” portion of CCN, Morin said, represents the lists of all 12 counties' resources and organizations that are available to cancer patients. This list includes places that are available to help with rent and utilities, clothing, food pantries and transportation services, to name a few.

The Community Cancer Network originally started as an entirely volunteer-run organization, but they figured out quickly that, in order to do what they wanted to do, there needed to be some paid positions, Morin said.

Now, the business has two full-time positions, Morin as the executive director and a client advocate position.

“We still want to rely on volunteers as much as possible, but that can be crazy because we are dealing with more than 400 active clients right now,” she said.

The Community Cancer Network is constantly looking for more volunteers, Morin said. The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on their volunteer force and they are currently trying to build it back up, she said.

“I think COVID showed people that a lot of things don’t have to be done in person,” she said. “I collaborate with other nonprofit directors all the time and we are scratching our heads to figure out how to get volunteers back out in the community.”

With employers struggling to find people who want to work, it is even more of a challenge to find volunteers to work for free, Morin said.

“I think if people could be a fly on the wall and see what I see everyday, they would be falling over themselves to help,” she said. “They don’t get to see the heartbreak that I see. I go home everyday loving my job because I know that I have been able to help somebody every single day.”

The number one thing the Community Cancer Network needs help with is fundraising events, Morin said. Oftentimes, for events they do not have enough people to form an official committee and Morin works overtime as the clearing house doing random tasks, she said.

“It is hard to put this into words, but a lot of time people have it in their mind of what they think we need them to do as a volunteer when, really, there are so many things that need to be done that we can find a fit for anyone,” she said.

Another way people can volunteer is by adding their name to a list for clients who need rides in the future. The dates clients need rides are not recurring, so, when the need comes up, Morin sends out a text or email for people to reply a simple “yes, I can” or “no, I cannot” provide a ride on that day.

“Sometimes I won’t need a driver for three months and then, boom, five people need a ride all at once,” she said. “We are hoping to be able to build up this master list of volunteers so that nobody has to feel bad or guilty about saying ‘no.’ They just do it when they can.”

Recently, CCN has seen an influx of homeless clients coming to them, Morin said.

“They have cancer and they are literally living on the streets,” she said. “That was eye opening for me because I never thought about Lafayette having that problem. In my head, that was a ‘big city’ problem. But it has definitely become a challenge.”

Community Cancer Network is currently trying to get homeless clients connected with Lafayette Urban Ministry (LUM) shelters and other programs to find them some kind of housing, she said.

Volunteers can also help with this process through administrative assistance. Those interested in volunteering can learn more by visiting the Community Cancer Network web page and clicking on the “volunteer” tab.

Volunteers can indicate their preferences, skills and areas of interest as well as choose whether they are interested in being a daily, seasonal, group or “done in a day” volunteer.

Those with additional questions can email director@ccnhope.org or by calling 765-446-5464 ext. 3.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Community Cancer Network helps patients with basics, needs volunteers