A San Diego nonprofit born out of a family's grief over their five-year-old son's death from leukemia is throwing its 23rd annual fundraiser next month, aiming to keep its fleet of vans running for immunocompromised children who cannot safely ride a bus or trolley to chemotherapy. The Emilio Nares Foundation will hold its Harvest for Hope gala on September 17 at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar, drawing what organizers expect to be hundreds of supporters, community leaders, healthcare partners and advocates.
Richard and Diane Nares co-founded the organization in 2002 after their son Emilio died of acute lymphoblastic leukemia at age five, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. The couple created the foundation in his memory, and it has since grown from a personal gesture into a fixture of pediatric cancer care across Southern California, having served thousands of children and caregivers in the region. Richard Nares went on to earn national recognition for that work, landing a spot among CNN's Top 10 Heroes of 2013 and a $50,000 grant that helped expand the group's free transportation services, according to the Presidio Sentinel.
The foundation's flagship Ride with Emilio program provides safe, reliable transportation for immunocompromised children traveling to and from lifesaving medical appointments, and it has now logged more than 1.7 million miles since its founding, per the Union-Tribune. That mission addresses a real clinical danger: kids undergoing chemotherapy have depleted white blood cell counts, and exposure to public transit can trigger severe infections, according to the same GB Magazine report that notes up to half of families facing a pediatric cancer diagnosis also face financial hardship or job loss.
A Van Ride Can Mean the Difference Between Missing Treatment and Making It
The scale of that demand shows up in the numbers. In 2024 alone, Ride with Emilio completed 2,521 free rides and logged 101,664 miles across San Diego County, while the foundation's Family Resource Center assisted 168 families — a 50% jump from the year before, the Presidio Sentinel reported. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the disease that took Emilio's life, accounts for roughly 75% of pediatric leukemia cases, tends to peak in children between ages 2 and 5, and disproportionately affects Hispanic children, according to the American Cancer Society.
That treatment burden is why the foundation has built out programs well beyond transportation. It offers family resource centers, bilingual family navigation services, a snack bag program, and emotional support initiatives, including Creating for Hope therapeutic crafting groups for caregivers and Healing Through Nature outdoor outings for children in remission, per GuideStar and GB Magazine. The foundation is also the only outside nonprofit granted permanent dedicated program space inside Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego, an arrangement GuideStar describes as underscoring the trust between ENF and the region's primary pediatric medical center.
Del Mar Gala Set for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
Harvest for Hope is timed to Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and this year's event will feature a tasting experience with more than 20 Southern California and Baja California restaurants, wineries, breweries and spirits partners, along with a silent auction and stories shared directly by foundation families. Jennie, Mark, Rhone and Cassady Johnson are serving as presenting sponsors, with additional support from the Manchester Family Foundation.
Elsa Morales-Roth, according to the Union-Tribune, said every ticket purchased and every dollar raised helps provide free transportation, family resources and compassionate support to local families impacted by pediatric cancer. She also described the event as more than a fundraiser, framing it as central to sustaining the foundation's essential services and its expansion to more families in need.
Reaching Families Beyond San Diego County
That expansion has recently stretched into the Imperial Valley, where the foundation now shuttles low-income children more than two hours each way to specialized oncology care at Rady Children's Hospital or Children's Hospital of Orange County, according to the Calexico Chronicle. In May, the foundation hosted its first Family Resource Fair in Imperial to connect local families with health, food and legal services, a sign of growing regional demand for the kind of support the group has offered in San Diego for more than two decades.
