Eight years ago, Sheryll Greenmier opened her door and found Tom Karaban standing there with an air conditioner in his arms.

Greenmier had been in need of an air conditioner for her son, Henry Jr., then 5, who suffers from cystic fibrosis and had trouble breathing during the hot summer months.

"I had called my social worker crying," said Greenmier, beginning the story she says she loves to tell of her first meeting with the founder of the Middletown Township-based Rainbow Foundation. "I didn't know what to do.

"The next day Tom Karaban called me and told me to go to Kmart and pick up an air conditioner. But when 1 got there, Kmart was out of air conditioners. The next morning Tom Karaban knocked on my door with an air conditioner."

Greenmier said she tried to give Karaban the check she had been given to buy the air conditioner. But he told her to keep the check and use the money to buy her son some new clothes.

"I'm so much indebted to Tom," Greenmier said. "I could never repay everything he has done for my family."

Greenmier echoes the words of the families of thousands of children who have been helped by Karaban's Rainbow Foundation since it was founded 10 years ago this month. Indeed, the foundation has provided medical equipment, medicine, medical-related air fares, food and clothing to more than 4,000 children in need throughout New Jersey.

Ten years ago, Karaban left his Wall Street job of 25 years with hopes of doing something to help the less fortunate. As he became aware of a couple of cases of children in need, he and his wife, Peggy, eventually decided children would be the focus of their efforts.

"At the beginning we had very low aspirations," Karaban recalled. "We were happy if we could help a dozen kids a year. We never thought it would amount to this."

But as word spread about the foundation's work, mure and more children were brought to Karaban's attention. Children with catastrophic illnesses. Children being neglected or abused.

"It was started as a private founda- tion, but after the first year we got more requests than we could handle," Karaban said. "We decided to go public. But no one had heard of us. No one knew what we were doing. It took a lot of effort getting our name out.

"A lot of groups and individuals were reluctant to contnbute because they didn't think we'd have staying power because we were so small. After the third or fourth year things started to take off and get better.

"The best form of advertising is when you help a family and they tell people. We started to pick up a lot of support that way."

In many cases, the Karabans and the foundation do not simply come into the lives of these families, help, and then move on. They Karabans stay involved and are only a telephone call away when new problems arise.

Karaban visited the family of David Iannucci, Middletown Township, weekly for four years until David's death from cancer two years ago. The Karabans remember being amazed at the strength of the 12-year~ld's faith.

"David was a very bright boy," Peggy Karaban said. "He pretty much from Day One accepted what was happening to him and better than anyone knew what the outcome would be."

An outcome the Karabans have, sadly, been through with many families.

"You go through the grieving," Tom Karaban said. "And then you go on.

"The more frustrating part of the work that gets to you is, the bottom line with children is they're really secondclass citizens. They don't have rights like you and I as adults. That will stop you from doing this work quicker than losing a child."

A few years ago, the Karabans noticed they were getting a lot of referrals of children who were abused.

"The majority were horrendous cases," Karaban said. "And there was nothing we could do for these kids."

That frustration prompted the opening two years ago of Noah's Ark, a home in Northern Monmouth County for children age 5 and younger who are abused or neglected. The home provided a safe place for the children until they can be placed :n foster care.

Karaban considers opening the home one of the foundation's biggest accomplishments.

"Everything was against us," he said. "The (donated) house was in homble shape. We didn't know where we would get the money to renovate or how we would be able to staff it."

A newspaper story resulted in a flood of telephone calls and offers of help from painters, carpenters and others, along with a $10,000 donation from Prudential Insurance, Holmdel Township.

"To see it transform from what was run down and ugly to the beautiful house we opened was incredible," Karaban said.

Like Sheryll Greenmier, most families are eager to sing the Rainbow Foundation's praise.

The foundation has helped the Greenmiers pay for medication for Henry and helped the family buy groceries when Henry Sr. was out of work. Two years ago, when Sheryll Greenmier had brain surgery, the Karabans were there again.

"Tom came to see me and asked me how I was," Sheryll Greenmier recalled. "I told him I was fine but Tom must have thought I wasn't because he arranged for a nurse to come and help me out at home for a week.

"Whatever problems I have, he knows about them before I even have a chance to tell him. He can tell in my voice when something is wrong. The first five years of my son's life we were struggling. With Tom and Peggy there, when I run into the deepest ends and have nothing left, I can call them or they'll call me."

Today, while Henry Jr. waits on the list for a double lung transplant, the Karabans are still there, even offering their home to younger sister Krystal, 8, when Henry Jr. and his parents go to the hospital for the operation.

"Anytime you need to talk, they're there," Sheryll Greenmier said. "I don't think I would have survived to where I am now without them in my life. Tom keeps my sanity and tells me everything is going to be OK. He is there 100 percent for everybody."

Karaban said he still misses Wall Street sometimes, although not as much as the first few years when his whole family, including the couple's three children, were adjusting to the change in lifestyle. Ideally, the Karabans would love to see the doors of the Rainbow Foundation close forever because it is no longer needed. Realistically, they know that isn't likely to happen.

In the meantime, they fight the tough battle against depleting funds. Last year was the first the foundation ended with a deficit, Tom Karaban said. Donations plummeted by 40 percent.

Just last week, however, the foundation received a $12,500 donation from the Sands Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, along with $5,000 from the Prudential Foundation and $2,500 from the Bayshore Kiwanis Club, Hazlet Township.

Upcoming fund raisers include the annual dinner dance at Squire's Pub, West Long Branch, and a benefit biathlon at Sandy Hook. In addition to year-round projects, money raised will go to help needy families during the holidays and to the foundation's annual Christmas party, held at Buck Smith's, Middletown.

More information about fund raisers is available by calling the foundation office, (908) 671-4343.