I learned about Normal Moments a few years ago. The more I learned about it, the more fascinated I became. Of all the charities I have donated to over the years, Normal Moments stands out above all the rest. Normal Moments provides feet-on-the-ground, direct service to families who have medically complex children. These are children who need a ton of time and care and attention, often leaving parents or caregivers exhausted, and with no time or energy left over to do routine tasks like shopping, cleaning, or mowing the lawn. I know of no other charity that does what Normal Moments does---providing help with these chores and errands so parents can be free to be with their ill child. The founder of Normal Moments is Patricia Fragen, and this organization is the fulfillment of her daughter's hopes, and of Patricia's energies and hard work. Patricia's daughter Melissa developed cancer and passed away at age 17. Normal Moments endures to carry on her belief that families who struggle with sick kids need someone who can come in, step up, and help out in the same way that some very special people did for her family when she was ill. Patricia is a one woman dynamo who single handedly recruits and manages teams of volunteers and service providers to help the families Normal Moments serves. She really gets to know the families, understands their needs, and builds a lasting, personal relation with each of them. She organizes and promotes fundraising so that all Normal Moments services are free to the families, and I know that 100% of every dollar I donate goes directly to the services the families need most. Patricia and her teams of Normal Moments volunteers make it possible for families with sick kids to keep their priorities straight---Normal Moments volunteers help take care of the daily "stuff" so that parents can be where they are needed most...with their child. I know of no other organization that does anything like this. The families she serves are so fortunate to be beneficiaries of this charity. Even though the needs of a very sick child can be overwhelming, Normal Moments exists to give these families some much needed "normal moments" of their own.
I am truly delighted to be a part of this all-volunteer organization. Our focus is dedicated to families with chronically ill or medically-complex children in the Chicagoland area. Our family has participated in several volunteer opportunities including lawn clean up teams, family sponsorship for holidays, etc. We get great joy in helping our community support families in need of "a break" from the everyday responsibilities so that they can spend more time with their loved ones.
There is no volunteer experience quite as meaningful as with Normal Moments. You live the experience with the family you serve and see just how impactful your service is. There's nothing better!
This organization is so meaningful and helpful to families of medically fragile children, who may not have the means nor the energy to handle the tremendous burden and pressure of caring for the compromised child as well as other responsibilities, alone. Normal Moments offers not only the physical help with routine household needs, but emotional support as well. It is truly an amazing organization!
I have seen how this organization has helped many families. My husband and I have supported Them in their efforts Because we believe in what they do. We have experienced much joy through our past involvement. What normal moment does really matters and really makes a difference.
Normal Moments is a blessing. While caring for a medically fragile love one with a life threatening illness; we are so incredibly thankful for the service they provide. Between having to run to doctor appointments, hospitals and having a small ICU in our home, keeping up to clean our house, or plow our driveway or cooking a nice holiday meal is lower on the priority list; so Normal Moments services to do those things is invaluable. It makes us feel human again and gives the gift of time with our love one. I am so incredibly grateful for them and Patricia is beyond kind. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!!
tricia 10/18/2020
Thank you, Terry. I'm glad that Normal Moments makes a difference for you and your family. It definitely takes a community and we are honored to be part of such an amazing one!
Normal Moments has been a Godsend in our lives for many years. I was so very grateful for the years they help my family by providing snow removal & lawn services. As a single mom with a critically and chronically ill child, who has multiple life threatening illnesses, including brain cancer, it was like having angels on my side to help me!!! They also helped to put food on the table during the holidays and help with gifts to go under our Christmas tree for my girls. I will forever be grateful for their love, compassion and care. ❤️
tricia 10/18/2020
Thank you! We definitely aren't angels, but hopefully we are able to continue making a difference for families like yours for years to come.
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Normal Moment has been wonderful to our family. Having our yard taken care of, spring clean up done outside and new plantings..making it so beautiful!! We can't say enough!! When you don't have time to tend to things like this it's a blessing to have a group of volunteers come in and take over for you. Thank you Normal Moment for your angels who work so hard for families like ours. Thank you for the lawn service who come twice a month and for the snow removal too!! It's the best to come home from a long day at the hospital and arrive home to a clean driveway and not have to bust your butt shoveling snow when your are already exhausted!! Thank you for taking care of us all the times we so needed you help!! So very grateful!! JoAnne Colucci, Palatine, IL
Normal Moments has supported a family in our neighborhood for many years. The family is very grateful and speaks highly of the organization and the help they received such as the adopt a family for Christmas and the lawn and snow plow services that allow them more time to be there for their kids. Great organization.
I was a volunteer for this organization for a few years. I absolutely loved giving the time to families who needed it. People rarely consider the fact that normal household duties are incredibly difficult, maybe even impossible to be able to do when a family has constant hospital visits for a sick child. Normal moments does an absolutely fantastic job providing support for the little things that many don’t think about.
tricia 10/18/2020
Thank you for being such a gift for us to share with the families we serve. I know that you are now busy with your own growing household, so hopefully your review will help others to step up to assist as well.
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I have volunteered my time in a different organization that provides children with life-threatening illnesses and their families in the recreational sense. I find that Normal Moments provides the absolute essentials that are often overlooked or not thought of and also make a true difference to help families focus more on important things. I am a brand new volunteer, but am very honored to help with such a meaningful cause.
I cannot say enough great things about Normal Moments. My son, Joshua, was diagnosed with leukemia 3 times in his life. Normal Moments allowed us to have happy moments with my son and to just be a normal family. Our heartfelt gratitude and love to Normal Moments! ❤️
tricia 10/18/2020
We love you too, Sandy! Thank you.
Normal Moments is an amazing organization! Last year when I was battling cancer and trying to take care of my four kids (three of them have cerebral palsy), they swooped in and helped me with taking care of things around the house so I could focus my energy on getting better and quality time with my kids!
tricia 10/18/2020
So glad you're still here and stronger than ever.
I learned about Normal Moments a few years ago. The more I learned about it, the more fascinated I became. Of all the charities I have donated to over the years, Normal Moments stands out above all the rest. Normal Moments provides feet-on-the-ground, direct service to families who have medically complex children. These are children who need a ton of time and care and attention, often leaving parents or caregivers exhausted, and with no time or energy left over to do routine tasks like shopping, cleaning, or mowing the lawn. I know of no other charity that does what Normal Moments does---providing help with these chores and errands so parents can be free to be with their ill child. The founder of Normal Moments is Patricia Fragen, and this organization is the fulfillment of her daughter's hopes, and of Patricia's energies and hard work. Patricia's daughter Melissa developed cancer and passed away at age 17. Normal Moments endures to carry on her belief that families who struggle with sick kids need someone who can come in, step up, and help out in the same way that some very special people did for her family when she was ill. Patricia is a one woman dynamo who single handedly recruits and manages teams of volunteers and service providers to help the families Normal Moments serves. She really gets to know the families, understands their needs, and builds a lasting, personal relation with each of them. She organizes and promotes fundraising so that all Normal Moments services are free to the families, and I know that 100% of every dollar I donate goes directly to the services the families need most. Patricia and her teams of Normal Moments volunteers make it possible for families with sick kids to keep their priorities straight---Normal Moments volunteers help take care of the daily "stuff" so that parents can be where they are needed most...with their child. I know of no other organization that does anything like this. The families she serves are so fortunate to be beneficiaries of this charity. Even though the needs of a very sick child can be overwhelming, Normal Moments exists to give these families some much needed "normal moments" of their own.
tricia 10/18/2020
Carol, thank you so much! It definitely takes a community to create the "magic" of Normal Moments. We are, to the best of my knowledge, the only ones doing what we do. Wouldn't it be amazing if enough people stepped up to assist that we could expand past the Chicagoland area? A girl can dream.... Thanks again for your support!!
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Normal Moments, created as a memorial, a tribute, and a beacon of hope by Patricia Fragen after the death of her daughter, offers the kind of direct support to families of critically ill children that few other organizations can deliver. Their dedicated 'helpers' assist families with everyday tasks, allowing parents to be with their child in the hospital --- without having to worry about who is making dinner for the kids still at home, or who is mowing the lawn, or who is helping with the simple tasks of daily life. I know of no other organization whose services are so direct, so compassionate, so caring, so very much needed, and that is so deserving of our generous support.
This organization provides so many varied opportunities to help. All activities are well organized and make it very easy to participate.
We are so thankful to be apart of Normal Moments. We have been recipients through the holiday gift program as well as snow removal and lawn care. It has definitely helped relieve some of the stress that comes along with caring for our daughter. Snow was gone before her bus pulled up making it so much easier for all of us!! This program allows us to spend more time as a family and less time worrying about outside work! Thanks Normal Moments!!
I have been fortunate enough to work with Patricia Fragen and Normal Moments for several years. Beyond making an immediate impact by providing volunteers to assist families with critically ill children, Normal Moments goes further by continually searching for additional ways to help those families. Tricia’s drive and compassion is evident in everything she does and she is an amazing advocate for NM families. There is no doubt that work of Normal Moments is transformative for both the families served and the volunteers.
We LOVE normal moments! The services they provide help us get through the day to day. They provide a quality of life that no other charity does. They also make holiday special as well to ensure our kids have a great Thanksgiving and Christmas. We could never thank Tricia enough!
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Normal Moments has helped our family so much! They do so much but one thing that really helps is the home cleaning service. The last 8 weeks have been just crazy! We have 3 kids and it was the end of the school year, Charlie our medically complicated kiddo had his 7th surgery 4 weeks ago, so we had preop appointments, the surgery, then an infection, recovery, then several post op appointments. On top of that our oldest had finals and our middle daughter had field trips, a end of the year party and baseball. I also work outside the home so we were just drowning trying to get through each week! It was a struggle to get the house clean enough for our lady to come! =) Then after a great nights rest last night in clean sheets, I woke up to a clean house today and it was a huge sigh of relief. So thank you both for working together to provide this service to us, we are grateful every.single.time!
Great small charity, opened by a Mom who lost her Daughter, to help Parents struggling through the Kid's illness... The charity operates with high efficiency, helping multiple local families, directly connecting donors, volunteers and clients. Each family story is heartbreaking, and Patricia have strength to support them and share the word.
Normal Moments is an amazing organization! I have adopted families
for Christmas via the holiday programs over the last few years and it’s just wonderful. Getting to positively impact these families lives is so rewarding!
This is an excellent organization that supports chronically ill children regardless of disease and income of family. As a family with a sick kid, this organization helped us at a time when things were very challenging. Our volunteer helped with taking the dog out, keeping the house tidy, and ultimately becoming part of our family. When your in the hospital all the time, many things get neglected, including taking care of yourself. To have a “David” (volunteer), helps the family to keep going and have strength. They also help with meals at holidays. Without that, our family would not have had Thanksgiving, as it was too much work.
I would have been lost without the support of Normal Moments. 4 months after a divorce, my 4 yr old daughter was diagnosed with Leukemia. I was on my own with her through treatment, and cutting the grass or shoveling snow was not possible - I couldn't leave a 4 yr old after chemo alone in the house. I am forever grateful how NM was there for me. Even a year of having us adopted for Christmas.
It was a couple of years ago that Normal Moments helped our family, but it's never to late to say thanks! Our daughter had spent several months in the hospital and we were coming home to a completely different life. Our son was dealing with so much change, it was a really hard time. But NM got us set up with some house cleaning for a few months, which was really helpful, especially that first deep clean they did. They also put us in touch with some volunteer landscapers. They helped us pull out bushes we'd wanted to get rid of for years, planted our garden, and some flower too. It was just nice to get help with some of those little things for a time. Until we were able to get back into a daily routine, with our new "normal" life. Plus, the holiday meals we received each year were such a wonderful thing. It made cooking for our family so much easier.
As the parent of a child with significant special needs, my time is devoted to his care. My other responsibilities often fall by the wayside. Normal Moments made life more bearable for me and my family through the assistance that they offer. We had help with keeping up with the housework, the yard, and made our holidays extra special.
The founder of Normal Moments reached out to me when my 14 year old was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis and we needed to travel to Mayo Clinic for two weeks of testing and care planning, while leaving my other teen home. Her compassion, energy, and generosity were amazing. This is an amazing charity that fills a real need.
I have personally donated and know that 100% of my donation goes to help seriously ill children and their families. I have interacted with some of the families who are so incredibly grateful for this wonderful organization. I have also had physician friends recommend this organization to patients and families and they have had only positive things to say.
I don’t know of another non-profit organization in existence that does as much with the resources it has available as Normal Moments. NM is totally and completely dedicated to helping as many critically ill children and their families enhance their quality of life by providing all sorts of support that helps families focus on each other in challenging times. I am confident that there isn’t another non-profit out there in which a donor’s dollar goes further to directly impact the lives of those that the organization cares for. I’m proud to continue to support this amazing organization that does so much for the children and families it supports.
We have worked with normal moments several times! They are a wonderful organization who just want to help those in need.
I have attended the football frenzy fundraiser for a couple of years now and am amazed by the love and support this organization has. What a wonderful concept and it works
Our family was recipients of Normal Moments services!
The impact it made was unreal, I was able to focus on my sick daughter instead of mundane household tasks. I will always be appreciative of Normal Moments!!!
Normal Moments is an incredible organization that provides much needed services to families with critically ill and medically complex children. It is run by one of the most generous souls I know. I can't think of a better nonprofit to support.
Normal Moments is an excellent organization that helps families with special needs children. My company Crystal Klear Cleaning works with the families assigned to us by Patricia Fragan to provide cleaning services. I would recommend everyone to participate in helping make this organization service more families and build a solid community.
It has been a privilege to serve as a "David" to a couple families in need in my area. This organization's mission and effect are truly life changing.
Normal moments has helped our family tremendously over the past two years. The biggest help is with the holiday meals they provide! It takes a long time to prepare those meals and with their help that is one less stressor our family has! Thank you normal moments!
Working with normal moments has been one of the best experiences of my life. Knowing that I am providing assistance to parents to ensure they get to spend more time wth their children is a gift for everyone involved. And that is exactly what I do I help provide normal moments to families in need.
Normal Moments has been here for us even when our own family has not! They send a house cleaner every month to help us keep up with our housework (our 4 kiddos are frequently in the hospital/at dr appts for brain tumor, Trisomy 18, CHD, EOE, spine fractures, etc). Normal Moments has also given us holiday meals (Thanksgiving and Christmas), and connected us with an amazing family that gave our kiddos Christmas gifts! I highly recommend Normal Moments to every challenged family I meet!
Wonderful organization. As a cancer survivor myself, I know how invaluble a little (or alot) of help can be.
When my daughter was fighting Leukemia the second time, she was contacted by Normal moment about fulfilling her Christmas wish. My daughter was volunteering at Homeless shelter before she got sick and she knew what her wish will be. She asked for warm sweatshirts and socks for everybody at the shelter. Normal moments did amazing job and Daniela's best friend ( bc Daniela was in hospital and couldn't go ) delivered all the warm clothes to the Homeless shelter on Christmas Day. Thank you Normal Moments for putting smile on my daughter's face and helping others during very difficult times.
My daughter Amber had brain cancer and Normal Moments helped our family that is absolutely unimaginable! Without their help we would have endured many more hardships!!
I am writing this review because I have heard about the generous amount of help you provided Amber Moosvi and her family as she fought brain cancer. I heard about this group through a post on Team Amber's Facebook page. I think it's wonderful what you do to help families in need of support during difficult times in their lives. Thank you for helping Amber's family. They went through a lot, but were able to stay strong throughout Amber's battle with brain cancer. Especially Amber as she stayed strong and kept that beautiful smile on her face until she passed away. She's probably smiling down on all of us from heaven. Please keep up the great work you are doing. It doesn't go unnoticed and it's greatly appreciated. Thank you for all you do.
I've been watching their posts for a while and I kinda know the lady that produces most of them. She is awesome and so is this cause. I live a ways away but it won't stop my support for what she is doing. It just takes a moment and lives are changed....good or bad. But Normal Moments makes things things a lot better for those that need it. Bless you Pat.
Normal Moments makes HUGE impacts for so many families- it's amazing how wide of an impact they have.
Normal moment made my son's first Christmas a wonderful one!! He was chooses to be granted Christmas gifts from families. Thank you Normal Moments!!
Most people don't understand the stress having a chronically ill child brings into your everyday life. Normal Moments recognizes that and steps in to help out and let you enjoy the normal moments in life. We are just coming home from a lengthy hospital stay and it has been such a relief knowing my house will be cleaned and ready to bring my daughter home to.
This program has done wonders to help families in our area! I am a Service Coordinator for the Early Intervention program (which services children ages birth-three years old with developmental delays or medical complexities). Normal Moments has helped provide relief to families trying to navigate the medical care system, specialists, therapists, and the many, many appointments. Thanks to Normal Moments, the families on my caseload have fewer things to worry about and they can focus on their child getting healthier.
Normal Moments helps our family out by providing cleaning services once a month. Helping me out with simple household chores has a significant impact on my family because it allows me to focus on caring for my son. We also have had a team of volunteers come out and help us with our garden work - a clean yard was one less thing we had to worry about this spring and it made it easier to keep up with over the summer. My boys have also been the recipient of the gift giving program at Christmastime - bringing in a little extra joy during a most difficult time of year for families like me. Thank you Normal Moments!
Hello, my name is Max and I am so proud of the organization Normal Momments. Helping others is what this world needs..... And the best part is that this organization started as a beautiful concept from my Niece Melissa Fragen, her Mother, and their special friend and helper as Melissa had her battle with cancer named David.
Although Melissa died at a very young age from Cancer; her mother, Patricia continues to keep their dream alive by helping other families dealing with cancer in what ever capacity each family needs.
I am from Ohio and am a Caregiver for my sister, who had an aneurysm in 2008; and can tell anyone personally after caring for a disabled person for 5 years what it would mean to me, or even if I knew of an organization that would support me in what ever need I had at this stage of raising my kids along with being a Caregiver would be an answer to prayer! :)
Normal Momments is One of a Kind, and Deserves the recognition, in my opinion . Where else in America can you find an organization that will support you and your family through the journey of having cancer?
Keep up the great work, Patricia, I am so proud of you! Max
Comments ( 1 )
tricia 10/18/2020 Carol, thank you so much! It definitely takes a community to create the "magic" of Normal Moments. We are, to the best of my knowledge, the only ones doing what we do. Wouldn't it be amazing if enough people stepped up to assist that we could expand past the Chicagoland area? A girl can dream.... Thanks again for your support!!