How Friends in Need Began

During 1995 our friend Danny Benson was diagnosed with a rare medical condition known as dystonia, which causes the muscles to involuntarily contract and spasm. In Danny’s case the condition was centralized in his upper body. This diagnosis came almost a year after his symptoms began. Danny was 26 years old and had just received his degree from the University of New Orleans. Danny was unable to work due to his condition and did not have health insurance. The medical bills for specialists and prescribed medications were rapidly depleting his family’s assets.

We organized a fund-raiser for Danny to assist with payments for medications and doctor’s bills. The fund-raiser was a tremendous success with close to 500 people in attendance contributing over $25,000 for Danny. Danny still suffers from this condition but his doctors have found medications to keep it under control allowing him to lead a normal life.

Danny now resides in the Atlanta, Georgia area with his wife Amberly, their daughter Catelyn and son Nathan.

With the success of the fundraiser for Danny fresh in our minds we decided to form a tax exempt organization whereby friends could assist others financially and otherwise in times of medical crisis. We formed the Friends in Need Foundation, Inc. on July 3, 1997. Our application for tax exempt status was approved by the Internal Revenue Service and we adopted a June 30th fiscal year end.

History of Friends in Need

Thousands of people have contributed to Friends in Need causes.  We have helped raise over $1,460,000 to assist families and individuals in times of medical crisis.

Friends in Need’s causes have included cancer victims and survivors, families with autistic children, the family of a child who was the victim of an accidental gunshot wound, the family of a child born with severe birth defects, an individual suffering with Lupus, heart attack and stroke victims, and the family of a child in need of open heart surgery to name a few.