Hope Totes Inc

Hope is a powerful force and when hope is given to lift others up, lives are wonderfully changed. The start of Hope Totes involves two women that have personal experiences with critical illness, and believed it was their mission to bring hope and light to situations other families are faced with. Meet Colleen Marchetta and Amy Velez of Hope Totes.

When Colleen’s son, Jackson was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease in 2014, there was a lot of medical information to learn, take in and organize. Three years into treatments, and many trips back and forth to the hospital, Colleen finally came up with a simple, easy to use tote set-up for organizing medical papers, keeping track of medications/side effects, and traveling for treatments or longer stays. 

Fast forward to the fall of 2018, when Colleen received a call from Amy, a longtime friend. Amy’s son, Thomas had just been diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor, and they were at the hospital preparing for surgery. Colleen immediately put together a tote for Amy, similar to what she had, and delivered it to the hospital. Included in that tote was a medical binder to keep and organize medical information, a notebook for writing thoughts/questions to share with doctors, a blanket and slippers for the hospital stay, and some other personalized items. This tote became critical to Amy for getting organized for their new reality, all while still in a state of shock.  

Over time, Thomas’ health improved, and Colleen and Amy both continued to make totes for loved ones facing difficult medical situations. It became clear to them that there was a need to provide these totes to more people in their hometown of Western New York. That’s when they decided to start a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, with a mission to support Western New Yorkers in similar circumstances. 

In 2020 Hope Totes, Inc. was formed and began offering support, organization, kindness, and most importantly, HOPE, to patients and caregivers faced with critical illness. Approximately 500 totes have been gifted so far, and Hope Totes is just getting started. Follow our journey and learn how you can benefit from this hope-filled mission.  

Hope Totes mission is to offer comfort and love-filled support in a time of medical need to patients and their caregivers. This is done through the gift of a Hope Tote: a high quality travel bag filled with essentials including a medical binder, planner, blanket, slippers, and other items individualized for the patient/caregiver.