Sherwood farm provides bright spot for kids going through cancer treatment

Published 5:00 am Thursday, May 22, 2025

By Ray Pitz

When Jen Bridges established Embrace Compassion in 2010, it was to serve children in a rural village in Ethiopia in encouraging family preservation, education and helping out with humanitarian relief.

The organization was going full speed in 2019 when she brought her then-1-year-old son, Julian, along with her to northeastern Africa to check up on the village where Embrace Compassion sponsors children in an effort to keep them in school.

But soon her life was turned upside down.

“Julian and I were there for a month, and when we came back, he wasn’t recovering well, and we didn’t know what was going on … Within a couple of weeks of us coming back, he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma,” said Bridges, Embrace Compassion’s executive director. “So that’s when our life changed so drastically and so quickly.”

Over the next 60 days, Bridges said her family, including her husband, Shane, daughter, Kaytlynn, and son, Harrison, would find themselves in the hospital 53 of the next 60 days as Julian underwent treatment.

Hospital stays were grueling

During those hospital visits, Bridges found herself isolated, in part due to efforts not to compromise her son’s immune system as well as the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic prevented contact with many people.

In addition, she had to aid in some of Julian’s medical treatments, something she said she wasn’t qualified to do. Bridges said that became emotionally draining after being used to simply being a mother and a top-notch real estate broker.

In the end, Julian did not respond to his cancer treatment.

“We went through eight months of treatment and about 3-½ weeks on hospice, and he passed away June 30 in 2020,” said Bridges, a former Tualatin resident who now lives in a condo on Hayden Island.

He was 2-½ years old.

Not long afterward, Bridges thought about how her family could help other families going through similar situations. She and her husband, who works as certified public accountant and chief financial officer, began looking at how a 100-year-old Sherwood farmhouse, one of which they renovated extensively, could play a part in helping children find a place to escape during their cancer treatments.

Garden and Big Barn added

Soon they started planting an expansive “friendship garden,” growing herbs, arugula, tomatoes, peppers and more. In addition, blueberry bushes, grape vines and a large garden border consisting of 500 dahlias were installed — not to mention a 1,000-pound pumpkin each year, which the family uses to participate in Tualatin’s annual West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta at Lake at the Commons.

Since 2021, kids with cancer and their families are invited for one Saturday a month from June through December to the farm, an event that includes a large barbecue.

“They come and we throw this epic festival for them. It’s a four-hour thing, and we have different stations set up. They harvest. They plant. They take home goodies. We have a whole shopping list of things they can do around the farm,” said Bridges, who estimates they have seen several thousand people come through the farm over the last five years.

The kids and their families all leave with a so-called “Brighter Box,” a wooden container filled with farm products as well as items such as science kits, new books and small toys. There’s also something for the mothers in the box to show support for all their hard work in standing by their children during treatment.

Reminders of Julian abound

Many aspects of the farm serve as reminders of Julian’s life. The playground the Bridges constructed for their son before he died is still there, including his favorite blue swing. So too are homages to the red shoes he loved to wear during his cancer treatments because they were so comfortable.

Meanwhile, Bridges continues her work in Ethiopia and recently returned to the village in the western Oromia region of Ethiopia in March.

“(It has been) 15 years of small acts of kindness and support, which has resulted in some really incredible outcomes: some really beautiful children getting the opportunity to be all they were meant to be,” said Bridges.

That includes seeing many of the 150 students the nonprofit has supported over the years beginning to graduate from college.

Having grown too is the Ethiopian hospital Embrace Compassion has partnered with over the years, bringing the medical facility supplies, training and encouragement.

“You know, we don’t get to choose what happens to us, and we all have a story, but we get to choose how we respond. I think that response doesn’t take away the hard things that we went through,” said Bridges. “I’m just very candid: It was the hardest thing in my life, going through treatment with Julian, and my favorite word (is) a-n-d. We get to choose how we respond ‘and’ I have chosen to respond with fighting for my joy with giving back with love for kids and families that are in hard places now that I know how hard it is to be in treatment. That’s just what we do.”

Bridges said the farm also supports adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them with work skills for employment.

To volunteer to help out at the farm Thursdays and Sundays, visit embracecompassion.org.

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