The History of the Foundation:
The foundation was founded in 2006 at the urging of many friends and SCD advocates that Ms. Shepard has met over the past 20 years of Raising Awareness About Sickle Cell Disease. KiKi Shepard began working with the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America (SCDAA) in 1993 under the leadership of then National President & CEO, Ms. Lynda Anderson, and National Vice-P
resident & COO, Mr. Ralph Sutton. She was introduced to them at a celebrity golf tournament in 1993 to benefit SCDAA that was arranged by a local celebrity organization called “Celebrity Families and Friends for Sickle Cell Disease”. At that time, KiKi Shepard was starring as the co-host on a very successful late-nite television show called “It’s Showtime at the Apollo”, and had become a “household name.” After hearing the information and statistics on Sickle Cell Disease, Ms. Shepard was approached by Ms. Anderson about using her celebrity status to help SCDAA. She graciously accepted that invitation, and for the next 10 years she traveled across the nation as one of the celebrity faces of SCDAA, hosting events – telethons, dinners, galas, etc., making appearances, and visiting families and patients of SCD, in and out of the hospital. Shepard does not have the disease, she does carry the hereditary Sickle Cell trait and enjoys giving back to the community. In July 2003, Ms. Shepard turned her birthday bowling celebration into a SCD awareness raising party aimed at the black entertainment community, to benefit the SCDAA. KiKi’s “Celebrity Bowling Challenge” was so successful and made so many of her peers aware of the plight of the SCD patient, that she decided to do it again the next year and had even greater results. This event with the support of the SCDAA was the beginning of Ms. Shepard’s individual awareness raising efforts, and was extremely instrumental in the creation of the K.I.S. Foundation, Inc. In late 2005, the national association left Los Angeles and re-established its offices on the East Coast. However, new leadership’s vision and re-organization of the national association’s focus led Ms. Shepard to find another way to assist patients and families suffering with Sickle Cell Disease. At the end of 2006, after celebrating the success of our poster child, Paizley Jenkins’, being declared cured of Sickle Cell Disease from a bone-marrow transplant surgery, Ms. Shepard’s friends and ardent supporters began the task of helping her to establish her own foundation. In 2006, final papers were filed for the status of a 501 (c)(3) non-profit foundation, a Board of Directors was established, officers were named, committees formed, and the journey of the K.I.S. The foundation has reached greater “awareness raising” heights, and has garnered even more corporate support since obtaining its status as a non-profit organization. In May of 2008, we received our final IRS approval, and we’ve begun to identify and establish community service programs to assist the SCD community. A unique element of the K.I.S. Foundation is that it can be described as a “celebrity based” foundation with four of our Board Members, Dawnn Lewis, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Obba Babatunde’, and founder, KiKi Shepard, being very prominent in the entertainment community. Our Board Members make strong use of their associations with other name celebrities, corporate, religious, medical, political, and social contacts to help mount and maintain the SCD programs created by the KISF. We have hosted multiple Holiday Toy Drives and distributed toys to Childrens Hospital, Kaiser Permanente, and other local SCD care institutions, as well as, individual SCD patients and families. We have visited patients at Childrens Hospital; held birthday SCD patient parties; honored Dr. Thomas Coates, head of Hematology – Childrens Hospital and Dr. Neena Kapoor, top bone marrow transplant surgeon – Childrens Hospital; participated in Blood Drives for King/Drew Medical Hospital; and participated in seminars and conferences with other blood disease organizations. Our Founder, Ms. KiKi Shepard has even carried the mission of the KISF to Howard University, Washington, D.C., Mobile Alabama – SCDA, UTD – Dallas, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona – The Quest to Cure Foundation, just to name a few. The K I S Foundation, Inc., is committed to improving the health and quality of life for children, adults, and families living with Sickle Cell Disease because "sickness has no boundaries and compassion has no limits".
