Families in Our Lives

When cancer touches the lives of many Montana families, the costs associated with coping with and treating the disease go well beyond what medical insurance covers, if a family has insurance at all. Many Montana families have to travel out of state to treatment centers like Seattle and Salt Lake, and hotel, food, phone and other bills quickly mount up. This is where the Payden Memorial Foundation can and does help. With the health and well-being of a child the most important thing on anyone’s mind, helping a family that needs support in meeting expenses can take at least one aspect of the challenge out of the equation.

Families are usually referred to us by social workers and other healthcare practitioners acquainted with the work of the Foundation.

For more about the ways we help families, or to make a donation to the Foundation or to a specific child, please see our Donation page.

Thanks to 104 riders and their donors, our generous sponsors, individual and business donations, and the work of our tireless volunteers, Blazing Saddles VIII on July 18, 2009, raised over $40,000 for kids and families like the ones described below.

The Foundation’s work continues throughout the year, long after we’ve finished the annual Blazing Saddles ride, and we welcome your interest and support.

Bethany will be 15 this December and loves the outdoors. She enjoys fishing, four-wheeling, hiking, camping, and hunting for fossils. Her favorite color is green, a good color for a nature-lover. Bethany also likes cats, art, writing, and singing with her church youth group band.

Leona Grace is the youngest in a family of four kids. She’s a beautiful 3+ year-old who likes the characters Barney and Dora, going shopping, and going to the library. Nice mix, Leona!

Her mom writes about your support of the Payden Memorial Foundation and the families it serves: “Cancer has shown us that there are many, many, many caring and loving people in the world.”

Derrek will be eleven next March, and you can see by that smile that he is outgoing and, as his Mom puts it, “loves everything to do with life.” That list of “everything” is pretty impressive: art, music, sports, riding motorcycles and go-carts, horseback riding, reading, dogs, camping, fishing, boating, playing with his sister and brothers, and school! No surpise that a young man with such varied interests thinks about growing up to be either a doctor or a race car driver.

Joseph plays guitar when he is not busy with school (he’s a National Honor Society student headed for MSU in Bozeman), or working part time.

In 2007, Joseph was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. He has completed treatment and is doing well.

Kiersa is a lovely little girl with a whole lot of style! Kiersa is three and is currently undergoing treatment for Ewings Sarcoma. She and her family are from Bozeman. We thank her Grandmother for staying in touch with us and for sending us these pictures of Kiersa.

Anne is a 16- year-old from Belgrade, Montana who’s active in 4-H and raises beef and sheep. She plays guitar and is in a band formed with some of her classmates. During hospital stays she kept up with school and music lessons and still had time for art projects, including one for a show exhibiting the works of cancer patients and their families at the Paris Gibson Museum in Great Falls. From the picture of this lovely teen, you can see that her varied interests also include volleyball.

“We want to thank you for reaching out to us at such an overwhelming time. As time goes by and the costs sometimes seem insurmountable, there you were again! . . . . Even more touching is that you care about my family.” – a mother of one of the children in the Payden Memorial Foundation community

“Your support is so blessed to us; it’s really a bright spot in our sometimes challenging life now.”– parents of one of the children helped by the Foundation.

Thanks to the families and children for sharing their photos and stories.

These are the faces and voices of families served by the Foundation.
With your generosity, The Payden Memorial Foundation can continue to help families and individuals with kids who have cancer. If you know a specific child for whom you’d like to make a donation, please see our Donation page.

For more information, please give us a call 406.222.6700 or Email us.

To make a general donation to the Payden Memorial Foundation, please click the button below.