Andrew Weishar was a freshman in college when he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. He was 19.
He fought it for three years. Through all of it, his family was carried by their community — people who showed up with meals, with rides, with whatever was needed and often before anyone asked.
Andrew noticed. And near the end, in his usual selfless way, he asked for just one thing: that the kindness shown to his family be passed on to other families who needed it.
He died in 2012, at 21 years old.
The
Andrew Weishar Foundation was founded months later to keep that promise. WeishFest started that same year — a summer music festival in a Chicago suburban stadium, thrown by people who didn’t know how to run a concert and did it anyway.
Thirteen years later, we’ve gifted $4.2 million to more than 775 families, and the party has gotten considerably bigger.
Why Adolescents and Young Adults
Cancer support is built for children and it’s built for older adults. The people in between — roughly ages 15 to 39, what the medical world calls the AYA population — often fall through the cracks.
They’re too old for pediatric programs and too young for most of what comes after. They’re in college, or starting careers, or raising small kids. The financial hit lands differently and the support often isn’t there.
That’s the gap Weish4Ever exists to fill, and what WeishFest makes possible.
See our programs at weish4ever.org
