Nearly 80 Casey Cares families, volunteers and staff members were invited to go on a tour of the White House! The tour included a walk through of the East Wing, the State Dining Room, the China Room, and much more! 

Our families were so excited to visit the "people's house," and enjoy a rare opportunity to get a first-hand look at the inside of the White House. 

The tour was made possible through the office of Congressman Chris Van Hollen, who has been one of the leaders in Congress in supporting the STAR Act, which was introduced by Congressman Chris Van Hollen and Michael McCaul (R-TX), Co-Chairs of the Childhood Cancer Caucus, Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA) and Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV). Casey Cares works with critically ill children at more than 100 hospitals in six states and Washington, D.C.

“Our Casey Cares families are faced with so many challenges every day as they battle critical illnesses, and we were thrilled to be able to provide a little bit of an escape from the pain they face by giving them the once-in-a-lifetime chance to tour the White House,” said Casey Cares founder and executive director Casey Baynes. “We are grateful to Congressman Chris Van Hollen and his staff for helping us arrange this very special tour and for championing assistance for children battling cancer.”

Among the 77 Casey Cares guests invited on the tour included children battling inoperable brain tumors, neuroblastoma and leukemia.

Introduced in July 2015, the Childhood Cancer STAR Act would improve efforts to identify and track childhood cancer incidences, improve the quality of life for childhood cancer survivors, ensure publicly accessible expanded access policies that provide hope for patients who have run out of options, and identify opportunities to expand the research of therapeutics necessary to treat the 15,780 children diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. every year. 

"A child is diagnosed with cancer every three minutes — and one in five children of these children do not survive,” Van Hollen said when the bill was introduced. “With cancer as the leading cause of death among young people in our country, we must do more.  As part of that effort, the bipartisan Childhood Cancer STAR Act will help accelerate research for pediatric cancer and improve the care for childhood cancer patients."

To read text of the STAR Act, click here: http://mccaul.house.gov/sites/mccaul.house.gov/files/Childhood%20Cancer%...