A Champion Award is given to youth (under age 21) with chronic conditions who have shown extraordinary leadership in and/or commitment to their school and community.
Max Mendez highlights:
- From Merrimack
- Max was 6 years old when first diagnosed with Cancer and he soon realized many other kids are also diagnosed.
- After one month inpatient, Max started asking questions about how does Santa bring toys to kids in the hospital? So the Mighty Max Mega Toy Drive was born. After the first year, Max asked when’s the next one? It has continued for 5 consecutive years at this point he’s collected about 100,000 items for local hospitals and the David’s House at Dartmouth.
- Other fundraising events, Max has participated in: the Jimmy Fund walk, Alex’s lemonade stand, Whip Pediatric Cancer and he was the top fundraiser one year for the Kids Pan Mass Challenge.
- He’s raised over $50,000 for research and care with his participation.
- On top of that he’s done other local fundraising events for children that were diagnosed and relapsed with cancer. These included more lemonade and hot cocoa stands, and summer toy drive collections.
- For 3 years, the family had to rent a truck to deliver the large amount of donations.
Thank you and Congratulations Max!