From November 2005 through May 2006, I was one of 150 volunteers from across the United States who had the true honor and privilege of helping to rebuild the Nata family home in Slidell, Louisiana after is was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. Those six months were the most meaningful of my entire life.

I will never forget the heart and determination that total strangers from across the country poured into repairing that home on Pontchartrain Drive so that it would be a safe and clean environment for Tony to live in following his bone marrow transplant in April 2006.

Week after week, volunteers from Arkansas, California, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Ohio, Georgia, Mississippi, and New York kept showing up at little Tony's house, sometimes working 48 hours straight through the weekend without stopping -- to get Tony's house and Tony's Room in shape from his homecoming from New Orleans Children's Hospital.

The unconditional love these strangers showed this special little boy - a boy that most of these volunteers never even met -- is something that changed me forever.

A few days after Tony passed away on June 19, 2007, Tony's mother Robin called me up and asked me to deliver the Eulogy at Tony's funeral. That was the single greatest honor anyone has ever extended to me.

The second greatest honor anyone has ever extended to me is when Tony's father Bubba called me in February 2008 and gave me the go ahead to officially launch Tony's Room Foundation in Tony's memory and honor.

As we build Tony's Room into a nationwide organization, I hope we can always capture that incredible spirit of what it is like when total strangers come together with a single purpose in mind: to help give a child battling Leukemia the best possible chance of survival by creating a home environment that is a sanctuary for recovery and healing, filled with the love of family and friends, both old and new.

I hope you will join us on this incredible journey as we honor Tony's memory by helping hundreds, and perhaps someday thousands, of children battling Leukemia through Tony's Room Foundation.

With my sincere gratitude for your support,

Jeff Parness
Founder & Chairman
Tony's Room Foundation