Community Involvement

TEAMConnor

  Last year, 12 members of the Northwestern Family participated in a 217 mile relay for the benefit of children's neuroblastoma cancer, and with the help of the community and the entire Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, we raised $171,000.
  Since then, members of the North Shore Group and Network offices across the country have built TEAMConnor. In 2005, Connor was an ordinary four-year old boy, with ordinary parentsJoy and Tait Cruse. He loved all Super Heroes, Bob the Builder, riding his bike, and dueling with toy swords and light sabers. He lived an ordinary life in Frisco, Texas until he gotwhat was thought to bean ordinary tummy ache.
   Connor's tummy ache turned out to be stage 4 Neuroblastoma, a particularly deadly form of cancer that strikes thousands of children each year. Connor has undergone 12 rounds of chemo, two bone marrow transplants, 18 treatments of radiation, one 13-hour surgery to attempt to remove the tumor, and still he fights Neuroblastoma.
   Connor has been an inspiration in our mission to provide transportation, lodging and funding to enable families, whose children are afflicted with cancer, to seek the best care available anywhere in the country, as well as to provide research funding to find cures and better treatments for childhood cancers. Our objective is to be able to donate as close to 100% of the donations received to the cause, as possible.                                                                                            

This August, Network office runners and volunteers participate in a 400mile relay race in New Cannan CT to benefit the TEAMConnor organization. For more information on Connor and how  to support children with cancer  visit: www.connorcruse.com