What is supposed to be the season of giving has become a nightmare for a Rockland nonprofit that raises money for children battling life-threatening diseases to go on a weeklong vacation.
The Carney family has some special memories of a visit to Disney World, but they wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for some help from Baking Memories 4 Kids.
Both 6-year-old Gabriella and 7-year-old Matthew have a form of liver disease, which means their mom Cassandra must check their blood sugar 15 times a day.
"We are constantly dealing with alarms going off on our phone. Every hour to two hours we have to feed our children," says Cassandra Carney.
But thanks to the nonprofit, founded by cancer survivor Frank Squeo, the family had a trip catered to them while waiting on no lines.
"We were able to relax for a bit and just see our children happy," says Cassandra Carney.
Over eight years, the group has paid for 200 families to go on $8,000 trips to Disney World.
They mainly raise money by selling cookies during the holiday season, but this year the pandemic has slashed donations in half, and he says his cookies are stuck at a post office.
"We can't have one part of the link broken. And the part that's broken right now, I can't fix," says Squeo. "It's just disgraceful, we're getting nowhere with them."
Squeo says the shipments are marked as priority mail, but they are left sitting in hubs. He has customers calling nonstop and worries that some may be done donating, meaning families like the Carneys might not get to take a trip of a lifetime.
In a statement, USPS told News 12, "While every year the Postal Service carefully plans for peak holiday season, a historic record of holiday volume compounded by a temporary employee shortage due to the COVID-19 surge and capacity challenges with airlifts and trucking for moving this historic volume of mail are leading to temporary delays."