On August 5, 2023 from 6PM – 8PM, T.E.A.M. 4 Travis hosts rare disease patients and families at Make A Splash for Rare Disease Community Awareness and Family Fun Night at the Goodyear Aquatics Center in Goodyear, Arizona.
This community awareness event is free event for all West Valley and Metro Phoenix area rare disease patients and their immediate families. We’re providing information about financial resources, life insurance, estate planning, rare disease advocacy, therapy services and more.
We’re providing pizza, soft drinks and dessert, as well as a goodie bag for all registered attendees. It’s a great way for rare disease families to connect, build community ties, learn and have some fun in the accessible pool. There is no cost to attend, guests just need to register at our website, https://www.team4travis.org/event-details/make-a-splash-for-rare-disease
My son Travis was just 4-years-old when the undiagnosed, undetected and untreated rare disease Isolated Congenital Asplenia (ICA) claimed his life just twenty hours after he first presented with a fever. T.E.A.M. 4 Travis (Together Ending Asplenia Mortality) is the nonprofit I founded as his legacy to ensure no other child is lost because of ICA. We focus on awareness, advocacy and funding research. Our mission is to advance development of a better diagnostic tool to detect the spleen in infants and get them quicker access to life-saving treatment plans.
Travis was known for many things: his brilliant megawatt smile, his desire to entertain people through sharing a silly story, song or dance, his love of Paw Patrol, baseball, pizza, steak and fruit. Most of all he was known for gathering friends everywhere he went. What he wasn’t known for was being born without a spleen. This was only discovered after he died.
Travis would be turning 9 this August. Since I can’t throw a traditional birthday party for him, Make A Splash is our way of carrying his sunshine forward to the world by embracing our rare disease community with love, knowledge and community connection. One young attendee shared that at our event, he would love to meet other kids and make friends. We hope to help him do just that.
