Our Mission
The Tammy D. Martin Trips, Dreams and Memories Foundation is a Colorado non-profit organization dedicated to helping parents who may be facing a life-threatening medical condition create a lasting memory for their children.

History & Purpose
One wish Tammy D. Martin had, but was unable to fulfill before she passed away, was to go on a big family vacation with her husband and children. Life, time and money never seemed to be on her side when she was healthy enough to go. And in the end, her health deteriorated much too quickly to allow her the chance to realize that dream.

While working through our grief, Tammy's family decided that the most fitting tribute to Tammy's memory would be to help other families facing a serious illness have a chance at that memorable experience.

Much like another well-known wish-granting organization, we believe that families dealing with life-threatening illnesses are under a great deal of stress, and desperately need a chance to enjoy each other's company and forge lasting memories that have nothing to do with hospitals, treatments, or loss.

However, currently, there are only a few small organizations in the United States that provide such an opportunity when it is the parent who is sick. When you think about it, this is the situation when such an escape is most needed. The last months of a sick parent's life are very frightening when seen through the eyes of a child. Kids go from a normal childhood to worrying about their sick parent and often even take on the role of caregiver. It is a change that would challenge event the strongest adult's coping skills. The effects of the life-saving treatments are scary to say the least. Physical, emotional and mental changes brought on by medication can change their mom or dad into another person altogether. Life often goes from baseball games and school activities to doctor visits, hushed whispers from the other room, and a lot of letting mom or dad "rest quietly." And if the parent does not recover, these are the last memories a child has of their parent, especially when the illness stretches across years or the child is still very young.

Many parents would love to spend some quality time as a family in those last months, but in addition to the demands of treating the illness are the financial pressures that go hand in hand with being sick. Quality health care in this country is expensive to say the least, and even the best insurance plans are not covering the full cost of being seriously ill. Most patients cannot continue to work during treatment at the same time that medical bills begin to accumulate. Even for families who live well within their means, spending money on a vacation at a time like this seems impossible. Not having a chance at a final happy experience with their parents often leaves the child with few positive memories of that parent or their time together.

We hope to provide parents right here in Colorado with a chance to create that lasting memory with their children at the time when they can probably least afford to do so. More importantly, we want to ensure that their children have a great memory to draw strength from during the healing process and for years to come.