
About Lewis A. Affetto Jr.
Lewis was born on November 11, 1981. It wasn’t until he was 2 months old that we found out he was born with a congenital heart defect and should have died at birth and probably not make it to his 1st birthday. At 10 months he had his first surgery, a pulmonary shunt and open heart surgery just before his 5th birthday. From that point on it seemed that surgery happened every 5 years. Read More
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THE FOUNDATION
The Lewis A. Affetto Jr. Foundation, incorporated June 15, 2011, is a nonprofit corporation, The primary purpose of the Lewis A. Affetto Jr. Foundation is to raise funds for charitable, religious, educational – to raise funds for scholarships based on merit and need, and scientific purposes – to raise funds
for other charitable organizations related to heart disease education and cure, including, for such purposes, the distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt organizations. We started this foundation in memory of our son Lewis who passed away July 8, 2006 at the age of 24. Lewis was
born with a congenital heart defect, had open-heart surgery just before his 5th birthday and several surgeries through his short life. Lewis graduated from Bartlett High School in 2000 and went onto Columbia College in Chicago where he graduated in 2005 with a degree in computer graphics/animation.
His Dream.
Lewis never seen his dream of being an animator come to life but our foundation is here to help our future artist see their dreams come true. That is why your support through a donation to our foundation is so beneficial. Our foundation holds a yearly benefit to help raise funds and hope you can be a part of our foundations future achievements.
Our first achievement
In May 2012 we awarded our first scholarship to Bartlett High School in the amount of a $5,000.00 to a graduating senior to pursue his education in art.
WHO WE DONATE TO?
Here is a list of organization we help and donate to:
RONALD MCDONALD CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
THE AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION
RYLIE – LURIE’S CHILDREN HOSPITAL
BRIAN – MS SOCIETY
SCHOLARSHIPS
MICHAEL COTTON – 2012 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
RICKY HO – 2013 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
DORCAS PONI – 2014 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
KAYLA BENSON – 2014 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
NATALIE KREMER – 2015 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
JESSALYN WITTMAYER – 2015 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
TESSA JATCZAK – 2016 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
ELISSA YU – 2016 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
ESTABAN MIRANDA – 2016 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
JULIANNA PRESSLEY – 2016 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
ISABEL REGALADO – 2016 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
SOPHIA POLIDO – 2016 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
RENEE RAMOS – 2017 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
OLIVIA ANAGNOSTOPOULS – 2017 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
RENEE MUDGETT – 2017 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
DANIELLE SMITH – 2018 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
FABIOLA LOPEZ – 2018 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
ANDREINA LEON – 2018 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
CELESTE PRATT – 2019 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
LEANN NOESEN – 2019 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
SIERRA LITZSEY – 2020 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
SULEIKA RUIZ – 2020 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
YENI SERRATO – 2020 BARTLET HIGH SCHOOL
TESTIMONIALS
RONALD MCDONALD CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
On behalf of the children and families of the Ronald McDonald Children’s Hospitals of Loyola, we would like to thank you for the generous donations of toys and activities. Your donation was wonderful and touched so many patients, that did not expect to receive anything.
You are truly making a difference in a child’s hospital stay. The patients faces light up when they are given the toys. Your donation played a bug part on the child life program.
Thank you again for your generosity. I am looking forward to working with you in the future!
Megan Gertz, BS, CLS – Child Life Specialist
MICHAEL COTTON
Receiving the Lewis A. Affetto Scholarship enabled me to attend the best college for the career I am pursuing. Through the funds received from the scholarship, I was able to enroll in DePaul University’s College of Digital Media. As DePaul is a private university, it came with an expensive tuition price tag. This very generous scholarship helped lessen the burden of meeting DePaul’s tuition and allowed me to live on campus.
I am currently a sophomore at DePaul pursuing a BA in Graphic Design with a minor in Marketing and am in the top 10% of DePaul University’s students in academics. I continue to live on-campus and am a very active participant in clubs and organizations around campus. I credit the Affetto’s and their scholarship with my success and involvement at DePaul. It has given me confidence in my course work as I continue toward my graphic design degree.
Aside from helping pay for my tuition, the scholarship has also allowed me to become an extended part of the very welcoming and loving Affetto family. I will never know how to quite repay them for all their generosity that they have showed to my family, but I am forever grateful to them for the opportunity they provided to me.
Thank you so much, Mr. and Mrs. Affetto!
RICKY HO
Art is fundamentally the foundation to all great ideas; fortunately I was given the Lewis A. Affetto Jr. Scholarship to learn and expand my mind. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and I assure you I will work hard. Creativity is key, art is needed in the world, and I have come to the realization that by contributing my creations to the world I have found eternal bliss and so thank you for supporting me.
KAYLA BENSON
Receiving the Lewis A. Affetto Jr. Scholarship has offered me a chance to continue working toward my dream of becoming an illustrator, and no matter how many time I say ‘thank you,’ it will never be enough to show how grateful and honored I am to have received it.
Ever since I was very young, I have always wanted to be an artist. My free time was divided up between drawing silly little pictures with markers, and imagining entire worlds where anything was possible. Flash forward a few years and I found myself favoring the arts more than the rest of my schoolwork; opting to sketch a picture or read a book instead of studying probability and the periodic table. However as the years went on, I found myself slipping further away from the art that I loved, struggling to hold on to and rekindle the passion I had to follow my dream.
I rediscovered my passion while on a mission trip with my church. Each day that week I would work with children and watched them become captivated by picture books. The children would take the lessons of the books to heart, even though some of them were too young to read and some were just starting to learn to speak English. When I asked one little boy what he thought of the story one day, he told me that he could not read the words, however he was still able to enjoy and learn from the story through the pictures. Since then I have had my eyes opened to the impact that illustrations can have on children.
Because of this I have a new dream, not only to become an artist, but also to become an illustrator and help teach children to open their minds and use their imaginations through my illustrations. With the help of the Affetto family, I can see my dream becoming a reality. In 2014 I was graciously awarded the Lewis A. Affetto Jr. Scholarship to help me in pursuit of my ambitions. Since then I have learned many things during my classes at Northern Illinois University. I have worked and studied hard towards earning my BFA in Illustration. The Lewis A. Affetto Jr. Scholarship has helped me with my tuition, but I find that it has a greater meaning than that to me. The Scholarship has opened my eyes to the ever-growing number of people who support my dream and me, and I can say that I would not be where I am right now with out their support.
I will forever be grateful to Affetto family for the support and opportunity they have shown not only to me, but also to all who have been recipients of this wonderful scholarship.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Affetto and all of the Affetto Family!
EVENTS
Due to the Coronavirus epidemic we will not be able to hold a benefit this year, 2020.
Hopefully our lives will be back to some sort of normalcy
in 2021 and we can resume our fundraising.
DONATE
Help us keep Lewis’ dream alive!
And to raise funds for charitable, religious, educational – to raise funds for scholarships based on merit and need, and scientific purposes – to raise funds for other charitable organizations related to heart disease education and cure, including, for such purposes, the distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt organizations under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
CONTACT
If you have any questions please call us at 331-202-7955 or email us [email protected]
© 2017 Lewis A. Affetto Jr. Foundation. The Lewis A. Affetto Jr. Foundation is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.