If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us!

• Mitch Stone Feature
• Mitch Stone Birthday Celebration
• Mitch Stone Adoption Announcement

Please check your email for your tickets.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Playdate with the Bearcats
Sunday, February 10, 2013
2 to 5pm
University of Cincinnati Rec Center on the UC campus         

Because of Mitch’s relationship with the UC Bearcat football team, he has had the chance to hang out and play games with the players.  .  . sounds fun, huh?  Well, come to Playdate with the Bearcats and you can have the same experience!

Playdate with the Bearcats, Mitch’s Mission’s signature event, is a fun-filled family event that gives UC fans a chance to get up close and personal with their favorite UC football players.

What kid wouldn’t want a chance to shoot hoops with some of their favorite UC athletes? How about a game of cornhole?  Autographs anyone? Or, challenge your friends to “minute to win it” type games of skill.

Younger kids can exchange high-fives with the UC Bearcat Mascot, play fun carnival games and get their face-painted by a UC athlete.

Adults, we did not forget about you.  Our food court is a great place for socializing and you will have fun bidding on fabulous items in the silent auction and raffle.  When we say family fun, we mean it!

Besides all of that, Playdate participants have access to amenities of the beautiful UC Rec Center, including swimming in the lazy river, rock-climbing and basketball.

How much for all of this family fun?

Only $15 per person or $50 for a family of 5 .  .  . what a deal!

And, all the proceeds help Mitch’s Mission send kids with cancer and blood diseases to summer camp.

If you really want to help (and have even more fun), don’t forget to stuff your pockets with some extra cash for raffle and food tickets.  Or, make it easy and pay for all of your tickets ahead of time when you pre-register.

Come play and send a kid to camp!

• How to get there

  Click here for directions to UC

  Click here for a map of the UC campus

• Where to park

  Click here for a map of the UC campus

  The best place to park is the Woodside Garage off of Martin Luther King drive. Once you leave the garage, walk up the hill into the center of campus and follow the signs to the UC Rec Center. . . we promise, there will be lots of signs!

• What to bring

  Your whole family and 10 best friends, tennis shoes, bathing suit and towel, money for the raffle and things you want autographed. We will have Playdate shirts for sale at the event so you can get those autographed, too.

Single Bearcat fan ($15 per person)

Bearcat family ($50 for a family of 5)

Super fans ($75 admission for 6 plus 20 raffle tickets)

Ultimate fans ($100 admission for 8 plus 50 raffle tickets)

For more information, contact:
Dee Stone
513-520-5409
www.mitchsmission.com

Mitch’s Mission:  Raising Money to Send Kids to Camp

Cincinnati — At the age of 11, Mitch Stone was diagnosed with a brain tumor, but he didn’t let the diagnosis consume him.  Instead, he and his family started a foundation called Mitch’s Mission that helps others with similar conditions receive the same treatment and care he received at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and its summer camp for patients of the Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute.

Through a unique partnership with the University of Cincinnati’s football team and student government association, Mitch’s Mission raises money to send patients from Cincinnati Children’s to summer camp at Camp NJoyItAll on the grounds of Camp Joy, just north of Cincinnati.  The camp allows these patients to experience the freedom and joy of summer camp, no matter how medically fragile they might be.  And since these diseases affect the entire family, each patient gets to bring a sibling.

Mitch was adopted by the UC football team through the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation, a national foundation that matches children with pediatric brain tumors with college sports teams. Mitch keeps in close contact with the football players and staff. Originally the Stone family started raising money for Cincinnati Children’s by selling red, white and blue wrist bands, but was able to leverage the relationship with the University of Cincinnati to help raise even more funds.

In February of 2011, Mitch’s Mission held its first event, Playdate with the Bearcats. The event was a family-friendly carnival-like event featuring student athletes and the UC mascot. UC’s student government association underwrote all the costs associated with holding the event, so all money raised was contributed to the nonprofit fund.  Mitch’s Mission will hold its second Playdate with the Bearcats on February 12, 2012 at the UC Rec Center from 2 to 5pm.

“We knew we wanted to do something with Cincinnati Children’s,” Dee Stone, Mitch’s mother said. “And this was a good fit because we could get the football players involved with the camp.”  Some football players and student government representatives have visited campers at Camp NJoyItAll the past two summers.

The summer camp is a chance for patients of the Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute, and a sibling, to participate in camp activities in a safe environment, while learning about their conditions and self-care. Mitch has attended the camp with his twin brother, Nick, and is looking forward to attending again next summer.

Mitch describes the partnership with the football players as a family relationship.

“It’s like having a really big family,” Mitch said. “I get to hang out with the players, get to know them and I’ve run on the field with them. It’s really cool.”

UC Football head coach, Butch Jones, says the relationship has benefited the players as well.

“Mitch is an inspiration to the team,” Jones said. “You can see all the obstacles he’s been through and see how he wants to give back. It just speaks volumes about Mitch and the Stone family, and we’re inspired by their courage.”

For more information, visit www.mitchsmission.com.

Camp is held for 2 one-week sessions each summer at Camp Joy in Clarksville, OH, 50 minutes north of Cincinnati. Besides the regular Camp Joy staff, camp is supported 24 hours per day by nurses and doctors from the Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute. Even campers undergoing chemo or requiring other medical treatments are permitted to attend.

Through the generous support of Mitch’s Mission, the Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute, the Tri-State Bleeding Disorder Foundation and other donors, there is no cost to attend summer camp.

The children Mitch’s Mission helps are patients of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center’s (CCHMC) Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute. The camp is called Camp NJoyItAll and is held for two weeks every year at Camp Joy located north of Cincinnati, Ohio. At Camp NJoyItAll, one hundred cancer or blood disease patients get to experience the fun of summer camp, no matter how medically fragile they might be. And because these diseases impact the entire family, each child gets to bring a brother or sister.

No camper is charged to attend camp, but it costs about $550 for each camper. Mitch’s Mission wants to pay for as many kids as possible to attend.

OK, so who is “Mitch”? The “Mitch” of Mitch’s Mission is one of the kids treated at the Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute and he has a special relationship with the University of Cincinnati Bearcat Football team (to find out more, click here). As a result, families, friends and fans of the UC Bearcats have stepped up to help send kids to camp.

Mitch’s friend Isaac donated his barmitzvah money. The 4th grade class at St. Gertrudes sold soup and were able to raise enough to send 2 kids to camp. Bearcat fan Bruce Ryan of Ryan’s All-Glass donated money from his annual golf-outing and paid for 4 kids to go to camp. The entire Bearcat football team came out at Mitch’s Mission’s signature event, “Playdate with the Bearcats” and raised enough to send 20 kids to camp!Please help us in our mission. . . how many kids can you send to camp?

Mitch with UC Bearcats Ralph David Abernathy IV, Travis Kelce and Silverberry Mouhon

Mitch finished his treatments in the fall of 2009 and was able to return to school in February of 2010.  Amazingly, he is on no medications and has no apparent deficits as a result of his brain surgery and treatments.  He visits his oncologist at Cincinnati Children’s and has MRIs regularly and every one has shown that he is cancer free.

Mitch is your typical high school student.  He studies hard, runs cross-country and track, and hangs out with his friends and his twin brother, Nick.  Mitch goes to every University of Cincinnati home football game and attends practices when he can.  He loves UC and Cincinnati Children’s and is happy that he has been able to connect his love for both through his work with Mitch’s Mission.