Surprise Mr. DeMarco and support the DeMarco Family Apiaries

Hello everyone! My name is Aidan DeMarco. I am a college student in San Diego, California, and was born and raised in the Boston, Massachusetts area. I've been very blessed to grow up with two amazing parents who have always been there for me as I was growing up, through all the high points and especially through all the lows. I am making this post to support my dad, Brian DeMarco, in hopes of flying him out to San Diego (hopefully with my mom) as a SECRET surprise to help run a flea market stand here at my college! I know the target goal is steep, and I apologize, but the hope is to cover travel and a place to stay for him and my mom, and I will of course use as much of my own funding as I can! I cannot do this alone, so I promise, truly anything helps! Even buy some honey or bee merch from me, all the money I make will go into surprising him!

The goal is to assist in promoting his newly developed bee business over here in San Diego, expanding beyond the town he works in! My dad (Brian) is known as the beloved 4th grade teacher, Mr. DeMarco, in Hingham, MA. From all the people I have talked to about him, I only hear about how amazing he truly is as a person and what a fantastic teacher, who has changed the lives of countless students and made learning fun.

Now, back to the bees! In 2022, he took up the unique hobby of beekeeping fairly out of the blue. He's always been a man of countless talents, and using his woodworking abilities to hand-build his hives, and his motivation to learn, he educated himself through videos, journals, and readings, in order to begin raising bees back home! From the start of his journey, he has demonstrated remarkable dedication to the bees, and I've witnessed such exceptional care for them! Honestly... I know if he could do this full-time to support our family, he absolutely would!

Beekeeping, I've felt, has been therapeutic for him as well, and has been a great bonding opportunity we have gotten to share with my father. A little bit about our current situation: around the time he began doing his beekeeping, my mom (his wife) in 2022 went in for a routine medical screening she had to do. In 2018, she was diagnosed with a sporadic form of cancer called Ocular Melanoma. At the time, it had been dealt with, and her treatments had caused the tumor to become dormant and eventually die. Then, in May of 2022, when she went in for her scans, the doctors stated that her cancer had metastasized into her liver. It has since progressed, but doctors and medical experts have been working with her day and night to see if they can provide her with more time, or even potentially cure it. The unfortunate part of her diagnosis is how rare it is; there are no known treatments. Once the cancer spreads to any other spots or vital organs, it is declared Stage 4, terminal. It has been a journey for all of us, and there has not been an easy day throughout the process, but I've been glad to see my dad be happy (no pun intended) and excited when he's working with the bees. It's also been great for me to share this with him, knowing how much we are all struggling but can still rely on one another and God through it all. Although my mom sometimes jokes and says he cares more about the bees than other priorities, we all know our family is the most important thing to him, hence the name, DeMarco Family Apiaries. This is truly a family business, and it has been such an amazing thing to do with my dad when I am home. My prayer is to be able to bring both him and my mom out here so we can share this experience together!