Trisha Danze, and her husband, Jeff founded Thea's Star of Hope after their daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor at 4 months old.

A history/education major at Rowan University, running a non-profit was never on her radar. After graduation, Thea spent 10 years in the retail industry, working in the field and buying offices.

But, when Thea was born, that life took a sharp left turn. Now she was thrust into a world of surgeries, procedures, doctor and therapy appointments and chemo. Trisha's passion for helping kids with brain tumors was intensified by every visit to the hospital or doctor's appointment and seeing the suffering that so many of these kids endure.

Now ten, Thea is doing well, despite being on treatment most of her life and suffering many complications, setbacks and disabilities related to surgeries and chemotherapies. The Danzes established TSOH to fund research for more targeted, less toxic treatments for children with brain tumors.

To date, they have donated over $150,000 to various research programs through the Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium, and have just made a 3 year funding commitment for a clinical trial that will test a novel therapy for children with BRAF positive low grade gliomas.

In addition, Thea’s Star of Hope has been proud to work with the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation on the Starfolio notebooks for parents of newly diagnosed children. Through their efforts, hundreds of children will have the opportunity for more effective, less toxic treatments and a chance to live, not just survive.

Andrew was born in St. Francis hospital in 1991 to parents Paul and Sylvana Keris. He was raised as an only child on the farm where he enjoyed activities such as hunting and fishing. His father and Uncle taught him about farming and Andrew also enjoyed the freedom that comes with the farm life, especially in the summer.

He attended St. Gregory the Great School for 10 years from preschool to 8th grade. At age seven his parents thought it would be best that he get involved in sports like soccer and baseball. But his soccer and baseball careers were short lived. Thank God Andrew’s school at the time offered music lessons and Andrew’s parents stepped in for career change advice. They made Andrew give the guitar a try which he actually took a slight interest and or the next 13 years Andrew was shaped into a classically trained musician, learning how to read and compose music by his teacher and mentor G.S. Haynes.

He attended East Tennessee State University to major in music. Missing the farm, his family and playing in rock n’ roll bands, he decided to move back home after two years of being away. Once home, he enrolled in classes at the local community college and started playing music again. He even started his own band.

By age 22 Andrew had had enough and decided that this time he was going to get serious with the gift of living. He discovered that he really enjoys being of service to others. He took a solo trip to Kenya in January 2017 on his own dime to teach agriculture at a small school in Nairobi. He enjoyed the experience so much, he plans to return this spring to continue his work efforts there.

Andrew continues to play music and is currently the lead guitar player and backing vocalist for the punk rock band Doc Rotten. They will be going on tour starting February 1st for a couple months. During this time they will be releasing a new music video and two new records, one of which will be recorded and produced by Bouncing Souls guitarist Pete Steinkopf.

Andrew always liked to travel and he loves seeing new places, experiencing new things and meeting new people. He joins his father, Paul as the only father-son duo to be the Robbinsville St. Patrick’s Day Parade Irish Person of the Year.