Champions Committed to KIDS was formed with one purpose. That purpose was to take children who are fighting chronic illnesses and/or disabilities and give them the opportunity to feel what its like to be part of an athletic team. To know what it means to be a teammate, to have a feeling of fellowship and a chance to build lifelong friendships. Partnering with our two local hospitals, Cox Health and Mercy, we take children with medical conditions and disabilities and place them with local athletic programs. These KIDS become official teammates of the school they are partnered with and develop a relationship with these athletes and coaches. We work with children from the age of 5 years up to 18 years old. We give these children and their families an opportunity to forget about their illness and all of the medication, doctors visits and therapy they endure and let them focus on something joyful, a feeling of hope. As part of our program we interview the child and the family and find out all of the details concerning them and what sport and school the child and family likes. We then meet with the team and the coaches and give them the background of the child and let them know what is expected of them. We then introduce the child and family to the team and that is where the coach will present the child with a shirt and some gifts and ask them to become a part of their team. We require that the athletes rotate 2 players a week who will visit with the child outside of the games and practices. The child gets to go to as many practices as they can and they sit with the team on the bench during home games. At the first home game that child is publicly recognized as the official newest member of the team. As another service, we want to help these families out with gas cards and concession cards. These families are experiencing emotional and financial hardship due to the medical bills they have incurred, and although the schools give the family season passes they still need help with gas and concessions. This program has been overwhelming with our sports community. We have 15 local and surrounding high schools along with all of our universities and our 2 professional teams who have joined this organization and have brought their athletic programs on board. When we held our first press conference, we had over 160 people in attendance and it has been moving forward and changing lives since day one. We have given hope and inspiration to these KIDS and their parents. We’ve seen grandparents, extended family and classmates come to the games because these children have endured so much, but they have joy and are smiling again and with anticipation are looking forward to the next home game. The lives of the athletes and coaches have been touched by these children as well and they have made it their goal to build up the self confidence and self esteem of these KIDS and have developed such a strong bond with their new teammates. We’ve had numerous stories done about our organization and how this has been such an impact on the children, their families, the athletes and coaches, the parents of the athletes, the schools, the hospitals and on our community. According to the hospitals and clinics, we expect to have 400 children in our program within the first year. You take 400 KIDS, family members, hospital staff, schoolmates, booster club etc. and you can see how this affects thousands of lives. As of right now, we have over 2,200 fans on our page, and anticipate it growing rapidly. We believe that the child and the athlete are learning life lessons from each other. We want them to draw inspiration, to never quit, to never give up, to be driven by passion, to be empowered by being part of a team, to know that they are in this fight together, to have hope and share in building character in sports and in life. We want them to live the life of a CHAMPION!!
