Mary Ann Massolio saw her son pass away at the age of 9 from Non Hodgkins Lymphoma, only 6 months after being diagnosed with a cancer that normally has a very high cure rate.
As a Pediatric Oncology Social Worker in Tampa Florida, Mary Ann had been involved in non profits for many years and then became the Director of the 1 Voice Foundation. After thinking about an idea that she had, in 2011 Mary Ann began the lengthy work of planning and putting together the 1 Voice Academy, which is the first school in the nation to be designed solely for Pediatric Cancer Patients. This school officially opened earlier this September, after a more than 10 year process.
Mary Ann will talk about both her son Jay and the 1 Voice Academy, which hopefully will be just the first of many schools to offer parents an opportunity to enroll their normally stay at home children into a place with the proper type of environment for both health and learning.