In the beginning, what Butler graduate assistant David Orlicz did was simply a random act of kindness – helping a single mother and her terminally ill daughter when they really needed someone to step in.

What happened from there has now benefited more than 70 families in the Chicago area and northwest Indiana during the past year.

Orlicz and the woman he helped initially, Patricia Fragen, started a Chicago-based organization called Normal Moments, which provides help so parents can spend as much time as possible with their critically ill children and experience less stress in the process. Some Normal Moments volunteers do chores – housecleaning, snow removal, lawn maintenance and meal delivery, for example – while others provide moral support and comfort. Professional service providers are used when volunteers are unavailable. (More information is available at normalmoments.org)

“It’s incredibly rewarding to be part of an organization that not only has such a worthwhile cause, but also has the drive to obtain resources and reach out to so many people,” Orlicz says.

Orlicz didn’t expect to be doing this when he first befriended Fragen and her daughter, Melissa, in 2003 when they were working on a theatre production. Soon after, the Fragens moved to the northwest suburbs of Chicago and were looking for someone to teach Melissa clarinet, oboe and saxophone. Orlicz was teaching and performing to earn money for graduate school.

For more than a year, he was their teacher and became a friend. Then in August 2005, Melissa was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a cancer that starts in the bone and grows into the surrounding soft tissue. Orlicz stepped in by housesitting whenever Melissa faced an extended hospital stay and providing TLC to the Fragens’ three dogs. Stays ranges from just a few days to two full months when she was treated out of state.

Melissa died in April 2007. But before she did, she told her mother, “Everybody deserves a David” – someone they can rely on for help.

“Without my dear friend David, who stepped in to care for the dogs, plants and house during extended hospital stays both locally and out-of-town, I never would have survived,” Fragen writes on the Normal Moments website. “Sometimes, when we had to be at the hospital on a cold winter morning, I discovered that my neighbor had gotten up early and shoveled my driveway. On those special days, I had some extra time to share with my daughter and one less cause for exhaustion.

“When Melissa stopped eating everything but sushi, friends and family created the ‘Sushi Fund’ at her favorite restaurant so that I didn't go broke feeding her. And when no one else really understood what it is like to sit by your child's side while her body struggles to survive, Sheryl (Diller, another close friend and now a Normal Moments board member) was there to reminisce about her similar experience and I knew I was not alone.”

That was the impetus for Normal Moments.

In late 2007, the organization became an official 501(c)(3) charity. Fragen runs the operation as president. Orlicz – when he’s not working with Butler’s marching band and basketball band or working toward his teaching certificate – is the vice president. He recruits and helps train volunteers.

They now have about 30 qualified volunteers serving local families. Those who provide moral support are called “I-Beams.” Those who help in the home are called “Davids” – after Orlicz.

Already, their work has received some attention, including a segment on Martha Stewart’s TV show, a feature on WGN News, an article in the Daily Herald Newspaper and a mention in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Orlicz hopes this is just the beginning. After the Martha Stewart segment, people across the country, from Seattle to Tampa called, wanting to start chapters in their communities. And Orlicz would like to bring Normal Moments to Indianapolis, if he can find the financial support and volunteers.

So far, though, he’s happy with the progress they’ve made.

“It’s remarkable,” he says, “especially considering the percentage of startup non-profits that don’t make it through the first year. We’re going really strong.”