Our Emerald Hometown Hero June 2021: Jeff Musser

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Hometown Heroes

In 2000, Jeff Musser found himself choosing a 28-month chemotherapy regimen to beat Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. During outpatient treatments, Jeff was exposed to families who had children battling cancer. He became aware of the financial hardships these families faced when one or both parents had to alter their work schedules to care for their sick child. Other organizations helped these families with medical expenses, but there were few that tackled personal expenses such as housing, utilities and car payments. The lightbulb went on and The Jeff Musser Foundation was founded in 2001, supported initially by money Jeff’s friends raised for his own cancer treatment. Jeff is forever grateful to his friends for their support and ultimately for helping him start the Foundation.

In the initial year of the Foundation, two families were assisted with $7,500.  Since then, the process has been honed and by the end of 2021, it will have surpassed helping more than 400 families with over $2,000,000. The Jeff Musser Foundation has developed close relationships with the social workers at Penn State Hershey, CHOP, Nemours/DuPont, Johns Hopkins and other local hospitals, relying on their input to determine need. All overhead for the Foundation is underwritten by generous donors so that 100% of all donations can go directly to families.

Jeff feels blessed with having loyal relationships with family and friends and gives credit to these ties for the growth of the Foundation over the years. Jeff and his wife, Pam, share three children: Ryan, Sami (husband Luis) and Shane (wife Megan). Jeff is working his way into retirement from his poultry management company and looks forward to focusing even more on turning what was an obstacle in his life into a vehicle to help others fighting cancer.

To donate to the Jeff Musser Foundation please go to:

www.jeffmusserfoundation.org or mail a check to The Jeff Musser Foundation, PO Box 216, Akron, PA 17501.

The Emerald Hometown Hero award was created in 2015 in partnership with Lancaster Barnstormers to recognize and honor outstanding individuals in our local community who have worked to make Lancaster and our world a better place through hard work, inspiration, sacrifice and leadership.