The Keri Croft Show

Little Legends Lemonade Ep 02: Why Childhood Cancer Research Needs Us

• Keri Croft

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Only 8% of cancer research funding goes to pediatric cancer and that single number explains a lot about why families still face limited options, harsher treatments, and too much uncertainty. I’m joined by Drew Dollmatsch, managing director for the Columbus market at CancerFree KIDS, to break down what that funding gap looks like on the ground and why the earliest stage of research is where progress either starts or stops. When a scientist has a smart idea but no proof of concept yet, traditional funding often won’t touch it. Cancer Free Kids exists to change that. 

We talk about how CancerFree KIDS supports research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and why investing in top pediatric oncology centers can ripple far beyond Ohio. Drew shares how their grants help lay the groundwork for advances in gene therapy and immunology, even when it’s hard to draw a neat line from one grant to one new treatment. The point is leverage: early funding turns “maybe” into “next,” moving promising ideas toward larger government or industry backing and, ultimately, better care for kids. 

Then we get practical with two ways to join the mission. Little Legends Lemonade hits Tupelo Honey on Lane Avenue August 2 from 11 to 1, with giveaways, big energy, and a goal to raise $5,000 in just two hours. And the 100 Mile Challenge in September for Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month invites anyone to raise $100 and complete 100 miles of any activity, tracked through an app that converts movement into mileage. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review if you want more conversations that turn community action into real medical progress.

Donate directly to the Little Legends Lemonade stand here:
https://cfk.donordrive.com/campaigns/Little-Legends-Lemonade

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And until next time… Keep Moving, baby!

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Welcome Drew And The Mission

Keri Croft

Hey there, you beautiful banana. Welcome to the Carrie Croft Show. Drew Dolmatch, welcome to the Carrie Croft Show. How's it going?

SPEAKER_00

Good. Thank you so much for having me.

Keri Croft

Thank you for being here. I'm delighted. I'm delighted to lock eyes with you. What's new?

SPEAKER_00

Well, quite a bit, quite a bit.

Keri Croft

We're uh First tell me what you do for Cancer Free Kids. Sure.

SPEAKER_00

So I am the managing director of the Columbus Market for Cancer Free Kids. Um, I know you've had a lot of other guests on talking about cancer-free kids. So I'm not sure how much you want me to get into the basics of what we do, but um, I'm happy to do that. But essentially in Columbus, we're we're growing our presence here and uh we appreciate the platform to be able to help us do that.

Keri Croft

Yeah, absolutely. And as you know, and you said you were gonna come, I want to get your commitment here on record. You'll be at the lemonade stand August 2nd from 11 to 1.

SPEAKER_00

I absolutely would not miss it.

Keri Croft

Thank God. Because it's actually gonna be really fun.

SPEAKER_00

I like that.

Keri Croft

Would

Little Legends Lemonade Game Plan

Keri Croft

you like me to set the stage for you? Please. Okay, this is year three. We've done uh two of these at my house the last few years. And this year, Tupelo Honey on Lane reached out and said we would love to partner with you on this lemonade stand, which is called Little Legends Lemonade. We're like, Well, of course. Do you think you could spare the patio? We know it's on a Sunday and that's your busy brunch time, but can we just see if the powers that be will say yes? As it turns out, they said yes. So we have this huge patio facing Lane Avenue. So the foot traffic there is gonna be tremendous. We're gonna have signs, adults running around in lemon costumes, very loud music. Um, Fortuna Bank, have you heard of Fortuna Bank? Okay, so they're fantastic people. They are sponsoring the friendship bracelets, like we're doing friendship bead bracelets. And then we've got so many local businesses who are doing a giveaway. So, like we're talking really good giveaways. The Tox Dublin, Sarah Ortlet Pilates, the Fluff Laundry Service, um, Gail Mitch is doing like a free haircut. Uh, there's like, and I hate myself right now. Why didn't I write all this down? It doesn't matter. There's tons of people that are giving stuff away. So I feel like the draw too, aside from just doing something lovely, come in, you might win something, right? So it's like you want to give them a little carrot to come. So I I just think it's gonna be a party on Lane Avenue, August 2nd, 11 to 1, Tupelo Honey. How many times have I said that today? Tell them how much money we so our goal is to raise five thousand dollars in two hours. Wow. And so we're gonna open up and do the QR code a like a week before or ish. So we might be able to raise more than that. I don't know. We're gonna see, we're gonna try. We're gonna give it the old college try.

SPEAKER_00

That's awesome.

Keri Croft

That's that's what we got going on for Cancer Free Kids.

SPEAKER_00

That's great. You know, I I was really just kind of saying I was gonna come before, but now after you've described it, I just I will definitely be there.

Keri Croft

You were lying to me before. You were literally gonna say yes and not show up. Little do you know, Drew. I I uh am a very tenacious gal. I would I have found I would have found you. I would have been reaching out to you, like knock, knock. I get your cell phone number, by the way, as you leave here.

SPEAKER_00

Well, that's that's okay. And and uh I will probably be there knocking on the door before you're even there that day.

Keri Croft

Absolutely.

Funding The Early Research Gap

Keri Croft

So I do think it's worth talking about again what exactly is so important about cancer-free kids, because it is allowing these very smart scientists and innovators who have an idea that could land and it could impact and change somebody's entire trajectory. It allows them the funding, the resources, and the infrastructure to be able to take that idea to the next step. It's huge, right?

SPEAKER_00

It it absolutely is. So where we find the biggest sort of hole in the pipeline for research is that area that we're trying to plug, and that's the early stage portion of it, and it's really the kernel of an idea that does not have proof of concept yet, and and there is no vehicle or avenue for for funding for that outside of cancer-free kids, really. And um without organizations like ours, those ideas really would just not come to fruition and and you know, die on the vine. And um, and we're very proud that we're we're able to um very um effectively select those research projects that uh that are going to bear fruit and have uh potential viability and uh and uh support those and get them to the point that they are able to go on and move to those other more well-established channels for funding, you know, through the government or um through pharmaceutical companies, um, device manufacturers, whatever it might be. So uh yeah, we're very, very uh happy and proud to be able to to fit into that that part of the pipeline and and address a glaring need.

Keri Croft

Yeah. What for the person listening, they probably want to know like specifics, like what's an exciting development or a thing that you guys have been able to fund that you can sort of quantify for the just the layout.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So um, so fortunately we've been around and we've been funding long enough. There's a very long tail on research, I'm sure, as you as you know. And um, so it does take a while for these for these ideas to bear fruit. Um, and along the way, there's iterations of that. So really um cancer-free kids funding has been the foundation for a lot of um ideas in um in gene therapy, um, also in immunology, um, that have gone on to become effective treatments in in in in children. So um it's a little difficult to point to this a one-for-one, like this new idea grant turned into this treatment, but it it is foundational in so many different things that are happening, uh, not just at Nationwide Children's or at Cincinnati Children's, which are the two hospitals that we fund directly, but because of their esteem and the the skill and talent that they have in those organizations, those those breakthroughs then become standard of care across the country. So really, people all over the country are benefiting from um from that foundational um from that foundation that's been laid through the the cancer free kids grants.

Keri Croft

What led you to cancer free kids personally?

SPEAKER_00

So my my history, my background is in uh hospital operations. Uh I I lost my father to cancer um when I was when I was 20 years old, um, and that really moved me into the oncology field. Um so I spent the majority of my career on the adult side. Uh I was uh I was at the James Cancer Hospital for 13 years. I was at Ohio Health for another 10 after that, and really working in the operational side of adult oncology. I've been familiar with our executive director, Jill Brink, is a personal friend, and I've been familiar with cancer-free kids, looking at it from afar for many years, and just really connect with the mission and love the work they do. And again, and a lot of what I was doing was on that research side on the adult um chain. So I was familiar with um the need in that early stage of the pipeline and uh the fact that this really this organization works so diligently to plug that hole was something that I wanted to be a part of. And so uh when we as an organization were making plans to expand into Columbus, uh it was it seemed like an opportunity that I just couldn't pass up.

Keri Croft

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

Keri Croft

So talk about you know, one thing we haven't talked about today yet is a hundred mile. We haven't talked about I'm failing. I am failing. I am failing. Let's talk.

unknown

I don't want to mess up with the on the name stand though, too. That's so exciting. But Drew is the perfect person to talk about 100 mile.

Keri Croft

Well, no, we want to talk about all of it. We want to, we wanna like, you know, talk about it.

The 100 Mile Challenge Explained

Keri Croft

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00

So 100 mile challenge is uh it's a it's a wonderful event, and it happens every year in the month of September, which is Cancer, Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month. So what the challenge is, and we hope uh that all of your listeners uh conquered the challenge with us, but what it is is you're committing to uh raising $100, and and of course many people raise more than that, but you're committing to raise a hundred dollars and complete a hundred miles of any activity. So um it's really fun and because you can do so many different things. And there, and there are lots of events where um you know that might be focused on one particular thing and and uh and having to be in a particular place at a particular time to do that. This kind of removes all of those barriers to entry, right? So um it's for anyone, any age, they can do it from anywhere. Um, we had, I think, participants from over 40 different states last year, seven, seven different countries. Um, so it's wonderful. You can a lot of people will ride or bike or or walk, hike, um, some of your more traditional physical activities, but um we have uh as when you register, you'll have access to um our app that converts all of your activity into mileage. So um, and so last year was the first year I did it and actually tried out a lot of different things to see how that worked. But um, you know, playing pickleball or even golfing, as long as you walk the course and you're not riding. Um, all those things will convert through uh through your smartwatch or um um you know, fitness device and translate into the miles and that that tracks there. And and what happens is so if you if you complete your 100 miles, you raise your $100, you've conquered the challenge, and and then there's a a reward store for CFK swag and stuff like that that you'll get credits for when when you conquer the challenge. But um then also we have um both corporate and community-oriented teams for this event, and uh the top fundraisers which in within those categories will have a uh cancer free kids grant named after them, which is a pretty cool thing as well, and and uh then get invited to our science with the view uh event in the in the in the early spring and get to meet the researchers that they're supporting and talk to them specifically about um about their ideas and and where they're going. So um, like I said, really fun. September, of course, is I think unparalleled in Ohio. Uh you know, um September in Columbus, I'd really rather there's nowhere nowhere else I would rather be. It's beautiful. Um, so uh anyway, it's a it's a great reason to get out, connect with family, connect with colleagues, um, you know, and and you can do it alone, you can do it together. Uh it's really it's it's it's meant for everyone and uh and of course it benefits wonderful cause.

Life Outside Work In Columbus

Keri Croft

Are you a pickleball guy?

SPEAKER_00

You know I say I play pickleball. What I do is I play tennis with a pickleball racket on a smaller cord. Yeah, yeah.

Keri Croft

Okay. And you golf.

SPEAKER_00

Uh not well, but I do.

Keri Croft

You're a tall guy. How tall are you?

SPEAKER_00

Six three.

Keri Croft

Did you play sports in high school?

SPEAKER_00

I did, yeah, yeah.

Keri Croft

What sports?

SPEAKER_00

In high school I played uh football and basketball, and I ran track. Uh, and then I played football in college.

Keri Croft

Oh, okay. Here we go. Where'd you go to college?

SPEAKER_00

Uh Ohio University.

Keri Croft

Okay. How was that? What was that experience like?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, it was wonderful. Formative in in many, many ways. Uh, and uh, you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't trade my time or experiences there for anything. I loved it.

Keri Croft

Were you a party animal? You have to be somewhat, somewhat of a party animal at OU.

SPEAKER_00

It you know, you you you kind of have to have a little bit of that in you to to be able to uh to get along down there to go.

Keri Croft

Did you just go ham at those little uh Halloween bashes?

SPEAKER_00

You know, uh we didn't so it playing football, uh Halloween of course falls during the season.

Keri Croft

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And uh I think the the athletic department had the the foresight to schedule our games out of town on Halloween weekends. They don't do that anymore, but when I was there, we would we would always be out of town.

Keri Croft

What position did you play?

SPEAKER_00

I was a defensive end.

Keri Croft

You just were crushing people, weren't you?

SPEAKER_00

Uh whenever I could.

Keri Croft

Okay. All right. What other activities are you involved in outside of cancer-free kids? Like what are your hobbies?

SPEAKER_00

Well, I have uh I have eight and ten-year-old boys, so uh they keep me pretty busy. Uh we we love the outdoors, we do a lot of hiking. Uh in the winter, we love to ski. Oh, nice.

Keri Croft

Where do you ski?

SPEAKER_00

Uh we mostly uh stay pretty local. We'll go to Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia, and um, so they've just over the last couple years uh gotten up and and gone off on their own. And uh I think next year we're gonna we're gonna try and uh head out west and see what that looks like for them.

Keri Croft

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SPEAKER_00

Did you have any snow? Would you go this past?

Keri Croft

We we had it was snow, but it was like, you know, when you're used to Mad River Mountain, anything's fantastic, you know. So I'm like, uh, you know, in hog heaven, but it was a lot of conversation around the snow.

SPEAKER_00

It was bad this winter. I went with some friends to Jackson Hole. Um, so without without the kids, and um they had better snow than most this winter, but still not great. Um, and it was like 65 degrees while we were there, and so you'd ski in the morning and then just got too bad. But then I left and they get 24 inches of snow in the 48 hours after.

Keri Croft

So being as like big as you are, six three, how does that translate on the slopes? Are you like a you know stand up, like a wrecking ball?

SPEAKER_00

You get you get your momentum going and it can be it can be a little tougher to stop, yeah.

Keri Croft

But you're good? Yeah, yeah. Like are you like are you doing like triple blacks and like flying off helicopters and shit?

SPEAKER_00

Not the helicopter stuff. I've never done that. Um I I can I can ski any inbound terrain, yeah.

Keri Croft

Okay, cool. So what area do you live in?

SPEAKER_00

I live in Clintonville.

Keri Croft

Oh, that's perfect. So what do you frequent around there? Do you go to Catalina's?

SPEAKER_00

Uh I've I have I sometimes go there for the pancake balls. Oh, yeah. Uh, but um that's it's a really popular destination. It gets pretty crowded. So we'll usually get takeout on the pancake balls. But yeah, um, you know, uh we would definitely um go to Habanero's or Hank's Barbecue is a is a is a great one. Smith's Deli, we love a lot.

Keri Croft

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Um lot of there's no no shortage of wonderful, wonderful places within Clinton.

Keri Croft

Yeah. See, this is how I figure out how I can start stalking people, how I can figure out where you live, then I get your cell phone. Then next thing you know, you just never know what's gonna happen. This is what this is my, I'm you know, just asking these curious questions. Um, do you walk around a lot there?

SPEAKER_00

We do. So, you know, one of the things we love about it is, you know, we're so we live right on the Park of Roses.

Keri Croft

So the Oh, that's nice.

SPEAKER_00

The Wantange River Trail is right there. So we do a lot of biking and and and hiking there. And um, my dog certainly loves being walked down there and and that helps keep me moving as well. So yeah, we spent we spent a lot of a lot of time along

Why Pediatric Cancer Needs More Funding

SPEAKER_00

the river.

Keri Croft

I love that. Okay, so any final thoughts or words on cancer-free kids and why someone should not only care, I don't want I want them to stop scrolling, I want them to listen, and I want them to actually get involved somehow. Any final thoughts on how we make that happen?

SPEAKER_00

Uh well, I think um the reason why we should make that happen, you know, again, we we touched on the need in the uh the research pipeline. And one thing I didn't mention is just overall, from a from a federal standpoint, only 8% of dollars for for cancer research funding, and that's adult and pediatric, goes to the pediatric side. And so obviously that's really incongruent with with the need, and and the the the drugs that they're developing or the treatments they're developing uh often are tailored to to adults and not children. So um, and and pediatric cancer is its own sort of beast, it functions differently than than adult cancers. So they really need customized treatments for that. Um and and the dollars aren't there to be able to make that happen. And and one of the one of the um byproducts of that is that the children are receiving these adult treatments, which sometimes will will cure their cancers, but then um, but then creates problems down the line as far as comorbidities, and and they're just not designed for people that are going to live for decades more. So um, so that's a problem there. And that you sort of combine that with um the increased uncertainty around um federal dollars um or governmental dollars being able to go towards this, and and the need is really acute. And we saw our applications for for funds double last year, and and we expect to see the same thing this year, um, just as people are are trying to figure out different avenues to fund their research. So um that's that's why you should do it. How you should do it is again the one with the 100 mile challenge that's coming up in September. We'd love to have everybody be involved in that. Um, tell your friends, family, get them involved. Uh, like I said, it's it's really fun. Um, but it also benefits these kids. And and the other thing, you know, is um we really want to build a community around um around this in Columbus. And, you know, a lot of that is is uh families that have gone through this. But um, you know, unfortunately, all of us know somebody that's been touched by by cancer, whether it's pediatric or or adult. And and um if you want to be involved in a really impactful way to uh to make sure there's less and less stories about those things, about kids receiving these diagnoses, what these families have to go through, uh, we hope that you join us with cancer-free kids in our community and and uh and uh and help us get rid of this awful disease.

Why Nationwide And Cincinnati Children’s

Keri Croft

So you guys fund nationwide and then Cincinnati Children's.

SPEAKER_00

Correct.

Keri Croft

Right? So why why those two?

SPEAKER_00

Uh well they are tremendous organizations. Um we're really fortunate here in Columbus to have nationwide children's in our backyard. Uh, I don't know if a lot of people are familiar with this or aware of it, but people come from all over the world when when they have sort of reached wit's end on on how to proceed with with a child that has a cancer diagnosis. And they come from all around the world to Nationwide Children's and Cincinnati children's both, uh, to receive treatment. And they're um two of the top five uh pediatric oncology children's hospitals uh in in the country and uh by extension, really the world. So um, so we love being involved with them because it really allows us to funnel our funds into a place that we know it's gonna be amplified and impact people beyond the borders of of central Ohio, right? So um so again, they're they're just so amazing at what they do. We know that they're they're they're great partners and we and we love working with them. And and we know that those dollars will be utilized in a positive fashion to to again help us get to uh to better treatments with uh less toxicity for for the kids. And that's really why we partner with them. And I think Columbus in general is uh one of the reasons that we're so excited to be here is that uh the people of Columbus are are really philanthropic by nature, I find. There's a there's a it's a tremendously giving community. And and I think one of the benefits that we have here that is a little bit different than other places you might go because we do have such a tremendous research infrastructure with Ohio State and and uh and the James and Nationwide Children's and all the other universities in Columbus, that there's an understanding amongst the populace about why research is important and the impact it can have. So um, so that that kind of you know is half the battle for us. We don't really have to educate people on why research is important. So it's more just telling them our message and and getting them involved that way. But uh, but that is uh that that's why we've we've chosen to be partnered with those two. And the other thing is that they're really kind of um both organizations uh specialize in complementary areas. So um, you know, they're they're really doing different things. So, you know, there's a wide swath of different types of cancers. It's not just one thing, you know, there's really hundreds of different can't kinds of cancer, and um, they're they're they're conducting research and making progress in in different areas. So no matter what type of, or mostly no matter what type of of cancer your child might have, it can be addressed at a high level at one of those organiz or one of those institutions.

Keri Croft

That

Closing And How To Join In

Keri Croft

was actually good. I'm glad that we did that. I like that about the research, and it's true. Um, okay. Well, Drew, thank you so much. This has been just lovely sitting here with you. It's I hope you feel the same.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. I love the space. I appreciate it.

Keri Croft

I hope I didn't ask you too many intrusive questions, you know. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00

I was expecting much deeper dives, so I'll walk out of here with my with my secrets intact.

Keri Croft

We gotta we gotta sm you know, snorkel. Why were you expecting more deep? Now I feel like I haven't done my job. How how where where was I supposed to go? What kind of caves was I supposed to go into?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I you're not gonna catch me that way. Kidding.

Keri Croft

So did you think I was gonna like be a little more like something?

SPEAKER_00

You know, I don't I just uh so obviously there's an intake form beforehand and we're we're filling out some personal things in there, and uh um so I thought we we just might dig a little deeper on some of this.

Keri Croft

Well, you know, I feel like usually like that intake form is like for like a typical pod, but this being for cancer-free kids, I've been trying to, you know, kind of keep it focused. Got it. Got it? Drew, you're you're an absolute gem. I should bring you back in for a full pod, just a whole pod on Drew.

SPEAKER_00

I'd love it. Your people might, your audience might not, but I would really enjoy it.

Keri Croft

If you yeah, I would like I think you'd get some listeners. If you're still out there following your girl, follow me on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcast. And until next time, please go check out Cancer Free Kids. Please come to Lemonade Stand August 2nd from 11 to 1 and keep moving, baby.

Head Shot

Keri Croft

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