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Wednesday, 05 August 2026
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Written by Mahalia Cooks
People undergoing treatments like radiation, chemotherapy or infusions for autoimmune diseases often face many mental, emotional and physical hardships that can make it difficult to keep up with personal care. Care packages are a tangible way to show concern and provide relief, and one Hope Mills nonprofit is proud to carry this purpose.
Latrice’s Promise is a 501(c)(3) organization that delivers comfort to patients undergoing cancer treatments by providing them with small but meaningful gifts in a box. These items typically include things like soft socks, key chains, pens, inspirational calendars and notebooks or journals.
The organization is run by Vonda Leak, CEO, and Rosaetti Sands, vice president, and was created after the passing of Latrice Williams, a Cumberland County Schools educator who had a rare form of cancer called leiomyosarcoma. Her dream was to offer support to people receiving cancer treatment and dealing with similar situations.
“As she was going through cancer and radiation, it was her vision to be able to give out Comfort Boxes to people who were going through the chemo and radiation,” Sands said. “Just something to kind of let them know that they’re not alone.”
The Latrice’s Promise team, which consists of six members, raises funds for creating the Comfort Boxes by serving as a bracelet vendor around the community.
“We make beaded bracelets, we go as a vendor to different events, and we make money with the bracelets to pour back into the boxes,” Sands said. In addition to selling bracelets, previous fundraisers have featured opportunities to buy goods from businesses such as Krispy Kreme and Poppin Popcorn.
They find patients to give the boxes to by networking with people in the surrounding area. The nonprofit’s most recent development was joining the Greater Fayetteville Chamber, which will give them higher visibility and an expanded ability to reach out to people they can help — and those who can help them in turn. This platform will also contribute toward raising awareness about cancer and the ways in which community members can lend their support to people with cancer.
“The Chamber is just a great place to have different opportunities to be able to speak with people that are either in the medical field or are just going through some personal stuff with family members or friends,” Sands said. “So, it’s a networking process.”
They hope to make contact with an even wider audience and connect with families and friends of patients or people themselves who could use some comfort during a hard time. See more information about the organization on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555949207569.
The nonprofit’s latest fundraiser is their annual Tea Party event, which will be held on Saturday, Sept. 12, at the new Feena’s location on 724 N. Reilly Road. The event will run from noon to 2 p.m. with an admission fee of $20 per ticket. Attendees can enjoy food and drinks from Feena’s menu while partaking in fellowship and getting acquainted with others who may have experienced similar cancer struggles to their own.
Tickets can be bought by messaging the Latrice’s Promise Facebook page or one of the team members tagged in the Facebook announcement post at https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DhfRudKZS/.
Funds from the occasion will go toward filling Comfort Boxes with necessary care items for patients. A select number of vendors will also be accepted for the Tea Party fundraiser. Business owners interested in becoming a vendor can reserve a spot for $25 and get their brand out there while contributing to an honorable cause.
Outside of fundraisers, there are other chances to help. Residents are more than welcome to support Latrice’s Promise through volunteering to fill Comfort Boxes or donating care items to the team. Anyone who wants to donate items can get in contact with Leak or Sands to arrange for drop-off.
With the colder months on the horizon, Sands is hoping to connect with individuals who can supply blankets for the Comfort Boxes. It’s also a goal for the organization to partner with someone who can help cancer patients get wigs.
Their new membership in the Chamber marks a meaningful milestone for the Latrice’s Promise team and inspires them to keep moving forward and bringing people together to support those undergoing treatment.
“It’s just something that I hold dear to my heart,” Sands said. “And especially losing Latrice through cancer, I just want people to feel that they’re not alone and there are a lot of people that are going through that struggle.”
If you would like to donate funds or items to their mission or want more information on how you can help, contact Latrice’s Promise at latricespromise@gmail.com or by calling Leak at 910-920-0533 or Sands at 910-495-4495.
(Photo: A volunteer with Latrice's Promise sells bracelets at a market. The funds from the bracelets go to create Comfort Boxes for people undergoing chemotherapy. Photo courtesy of Latrice's Promise)
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Wednesday, 05 August 2026
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Written by Tiffany Haywood
Chamber recognition highlights Blue Star Families’ work connecting military families with one another and the greater Fayetteville community.
Living the life of a military family is something only those who have lived it can fully understand. Relocations and deployments can leave families rebuilding community in places where they know no one beyond the military families around them.
Blue Star Families builds on a truth military families often learn quickly: family can also be found in the people who help carry you through unfamiliar seasons. The organization recognizes that those further along the military-family journey are often best equipped to help those coming behind them.
“The mission, while simple and powerful, is to connect military family members to one another, the resources and the community,” said Danice Langdon, director of Blue Star Families’ Greater Fayetteville Region.
Recently named the Greater Fayetteville Chamber’s 2026 Nonprofit of the Year, Blue Star Families of the Greater Fayetteville Region has spent the past year creating spaces where military-connected families can find support, resources and one another.
Langdon said the recognition reflects the dedication of the families the organization serves, along with the community partners and sponsors who help make its work possible. She also sees it as evidence that Fayetteville recognizes the value military families bring to the region.
That work begins by listening.
Blue Star Families does not decide what military families need and then build programs around assumptions. Instead, the organization gathers direct feedback through conversations with members and tools such as the Military Family Lifestyle Survey.
The survey allows military-connected people to identify their needs directly, helping guide programs, policy discussions, partnerships and support.
According to Langdon, 66% of military families in the area live off post, while one in four experiences food insecurity. Those numbers help Blue Star Families understand not only where families live, but what challenges may follow them home.
The data is a starting point, but the families themselves help determine what happens next.
If members want more outdoor opportunities or programs supporting children, careers or connection, Langdon and her team look for ways to make those ideas possible.
“This is your chapter,” Langdon tells members. “My job is to facilitate what it is you need and want to thrive here locally.”
Coffee Connects, Little Builders and programs such as book clubs grew from member feedback, and members are encouraged to help lead the programs they requested.
Outdoor programming has also drawn strong participation. A strawberry-picking event welcomed 91 family members, while activities at Clark Park have included birdhouse building, nature education and hiking.
The activities create room for families to meet, exchange information and build relationships naturally. Langdon said those conversations may lead a newly arrived family to a trusted doctor, someone who understands how to cut the hair of a child with Exceptional Family Member Program needs or another military family familiar with the challenges they are facing.
Those ordinary exchanges can help families begin to feel rooted in a place that is still new to them.
While Blue Star Families is often mistaken for a military-spouse organization, Langdon emphasized that its reach is much broader. It welcomes active-duty service members, military spouses and families, veterans, retirees, military-connected children and community supporters. Children remain military-connected even after their parents' divorce and can still benefit from Blue Star Families’ support and opportunities.
Businesses, organizations and individuals also help create the connections Blue Star Families is working to build by introducing military-connected families to the broader community around them.
For Langdon, the first qualification for a potential community partner comes down to one question: “Do you support our military?”
That support is also reflected in how the chapter earned its recent recognition. Because nominations for the Greater Fayetteville Chamber’s annual awards come from within its membership, Blue Star Families’ selection showed that local business and community leaders were paying attention to the work being done.
“I think that we do good work,” Langdon said. “And I think the community can see that.”
Being named the Chamber’s 2026 Nonprofit of the Year reinforced the organization’s mission to connect military families not only to one another but also to the resources and support available throughout the community.
The chapter’s upcoming programming continues that work.
Participation in the current Military Family Lifestyle Survey will help Blue Star Families understand what families in the region need and shape future support around their responses.
Welcome Week, planned for late September through early October, will be the chapter’s largest upcoming effort. Nine events are planned, including Coffee Connects, wellness programming, employment support, fishing, a zoo trip and a small-business social.
The week will welcome families following summer transitions and the beginning of the school year, with programs covering careers, entrepreneurship, recreation, wellness and community.
Star, Stripes and Holiday Wishes is scheduled for Dec. 5. The event will bring families and community supporters together for dinner, gifts and holiday activities. The chapter is seeking partners to help provide gifts for 100 children.
For Langdon, the next goal is not simply adding another award to the chapter’s list. It is building greater participation, a stronger volunteer base and more members willing to step forward and lead.
Each new connection gives someone further along in the military journey an opportunity to reach back and remind another family, “You’re going to be okay.”
When Blue Star Families gets it right, Langdon said, members “leave feeling connected, and they want to be involved again.”
For more information, or to join Blue Families, visit https://bluestarfam.org/chapters/fayetteville/
(Graphic courtesy of Blue Star Families of the Greater Fayetteville Region)
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