It Started with One Family: The Story Behind One Day to Remember

Ten years ago, there was no One Day to Remember.

There wasn’t a team organizing outings across the country. There was no network of volunteers, photographers, donors, or community partners. Families didn’t have photo books filled with memories from their own special day.

It all started with a nurse, a mother, and one idea.

Where It All Began

Before starting One Day to Remember, Rachel Antin worked as an oncology nurse in Pittsburgh. Early in her career, she had a strong sense of purpose caring for patients and being welcomed into such a personal part of their lives.

As Rachel cared for patients with advanced-stage cancer, she started to notice something that reached beyond the hospital bed. She saw their families. More specifically, she saw their children.

For parents with young children, cancer wasn’t just something that happened in treatment rooms. It came home with them. It changed schedules, finances, relationships, routines, and everyday moments of childhood. Parents worried not just about their illness, but also about what their children were going through with them.

Then Rachel met Jenna.

Jenna was a single mother going through cancer treatment, and what she wanted was simple. She wanted time with her daughter. She didn’t want another appointment or another conversation about cancer. She just wanted one day to be together and make a special memory.

Rachel wanted to help make that possible.

There wasn’t a nonprofit yet. There was no detailed program or long-term plan. There was just a need Rachel saw and her belief that she could help. That first experience was the beginning of what would become One Day to Remember.

A Different Kind of Cancer Support

When we think about helping someone with cancer, we usually focus on immediate needs like treatment, transportation, meals, medical costs, and physical comfort. Those things are incredibly important.

But Rachel saw another need that wasn’t being met.

Families needed chances to still feel like families. She imagined moments where children could laugh with their parents, families could go somewhere new, and everyone could have some time when cancer wasn’t the main focus.

The idea was simple but powerful: give a family one day focused on each other instead of illness. became One Day to Remember.

One Family Became Hundreds

What started as a connection between a nurse and a patient grew into something Rachel never could have fully imagined back then.

One family became another. And another. Year after year, more families got the chance to step away from appointments, treatments, and uncertainty to spend a day making memories together.

Now, as One Day to Remember celebrates its 10th anniversary, our organization looks very different from the idea Rachel first had as an oncology nurse.

But the heart of it hasn't changed.

Each One Day to Remember is still deeply personal. Every experience is built around one family. And behind every outing is the same belief that started it all:

When a parent is facing advanced-stage cancer, time together matters.

Ten years ago, Rachel saw one family who needed a day. She decided to create it.

From that one day, a mission began that would go on to create thousands of memories.

It started with one family.