Have you ever heard of ASK? ASK (Assistance * Support * Kindness) is a Virginia-based non-profit organization that helps assist and support the families of children with cancer. A huge part of the fundraising through ASK is from the hands of hardworking ambassadors working towards raising money for the organization. One of this year's ambassadors was Monica Behrooz, who raised over $33,000 for the organization, and lives in our neighborhood!

Monica is a mother of 3 boys and has a long history of volunteering to help others. “I used to
work for a family business, but once I started having children I retired from that and started
spending my time raising my kids and volunteering. I also really enjoy doing crafts,
scrapbooking, and making homemade gifts. When I first heard of ASK, our family started donating toys and making monetary donations, just trying to help out in any way possible. I think it’s super important to support children with cancer and it means a lot to me. When I was in high school one of my best friends was diagnosed with cancer, and ended up passing away shortly after graduation. As a child, it was really hard to process and understand. Later, one of my very dear friends had a niece pass away from cancer, and as a parent, you kind of have a whole different perspective on it.”

Monica first heard about being an ASK ambassador from a friend who had been an ambassador and thought Monica would be a great fit for the position. She became one of the ambassadors and started raising money right away along with the other ambassadors. The goal for the ambassadors was to collectively raise $50,000 but in the end, they all raised over $66,000, with Monica certainly doing her part by raising $33,000 of it!  To raise money she attended events to fundraise, asked her friends and relatives for donations, and held her own events, including a party in which she raised $12,000. The ambassador program ran from the end of June to September.

When I asked Monica about her feelings about the amount of money she raised, she said
she was shocked and surprised. “I didn’t think I would be able to raise that much money for
ASK, and I’m super grateful for everyone who lended a helping hand. I want to thank all the
businesses that helped out too. In the end,  I’m very happy with how much money I was able to
raise and couldn’t have done it alone.”

If you want to donate to ASK, they hold snack drives, school supply drives, and
toy drives. You can also follow them on social media on any major platform. They also take
monetary donations. You can find them at askccf.org. Thank you to anyone who donates.