Super Fritz & Friends Fund: Meet the OLA Family Behind the Charitable Fund Benefiting UC Davis

It has been seven years since parishioners Anna and Ben Stark received the lifechanging news that their 2-year-old son, Fritz, was diagnosed with B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

After more than three years of cancer treatment at UC Davis Medical Center that began when he was just 2½, Fritz has been cancer-free for the past four years.

Today, Fritz is a healthy and happy fourth grader at Our Lady of the Assumption School, and the Stark family counts their blessings every day.

“We are ever so grateful to have a positive story to share,” Anna says.

Grateful for the support they received during Fritz’s cancer battle, the Starks are now giving back. Along with their longtime family friends, Ruth and Paul Flowers, they started the Super Fritz & Friends Fund to create a new resource specialist position at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. This new position — Pediatric Patient and Family Navigator — provides support services to families during treatment and after discharge. “We felt this was something that was missing when we were going through Fritz’s treatment,” Anna says. “The medical aspect was taken care of, but when we left to go home, there was dark doom and gloom. We had lots of non-medical questions and worries and no one to turn to for answers and guidance.” Through tremendous fundraising efforts over the past two years, the Super Fritz & Friends Fund has raised over $290,000, which has helped fund the addition of the Pediatric Patient and Family Navigator position. Hired in this new role in November 2021, Veronica Neeri has already impacted the lives of hundreds of families since she started in this position. She is there to help with everything, from insurance questions and connecting families with resources to helping families pay their bills while their child is receiving treatment. She also supports families dealing with grief over losing a loved one.

Last year, the Starks hosted a toy and gift card drive through Our Lady of the Assumption to benefit the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center pediatric team. Through the generosity of our OLA parish and school community, in addition to a handful of local schools and businesses, the UC Davis Pediatric Cancer Center was blown away by the number of gifts donated. In total, the Super Fritz & Friends Holiday gift drive provided over $6,000 in gift cards and more than 1,500 unique gifts for families battling pediatric cancer.

“This is the largest donation the UC Davis Pediatric Cancer Center has ever received in terms of having something for all families to access,” Anna says.

The toy and gift card drive will be held this year at Our Lady of the Assumption from Nov. 7 to Dec. 3. Last year, the parish, school, and area organizations helped gather over 25 50-gallon boxes filled with toys.

Ben and Anna hope to gather gift cards and toys again for the children and teens at UC Davis Medical Center. The Starks say this helps families dealing with cancer treatments because they typically do not have time to shop during the Christmas season, or simply because cancer treatments leave the patient ill and with a weakened immune system.

Donations of items are needed for children of all age groups. The top need is for preteens and teens. Gift cards are the most-requested item. Suggested gift cards include those for Amazon, Target, Walmart, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Starbucks, Dutch Bros., Jamba Juice, GameStop, Ulta Beauty, Sephora, and Best Buy. Cards in increments of $10 to $25 are encouraged.

The pediatric cancer center always needs socks for all ages, kid and teenage-themed pillowcases, blankets, gender-neutral pajama pants, and onesies.

Ben and Anna Stark would like to thank the OLA parish and school community for their ongoing support of their mission to help families battling pediatric cancer.

“It is because of this community that we are able to help leave cancer better than we found it,” Ben says.

Questions about the Super Fritz & Friends Fund? Contact Anna Stark at stark.benanna@gmail.com. To donate, please visit https://give.ucdavis.edu/donate/yourgift/324631.

The Stark family at a UC Davis soccer game