Cannonballs for Kayne

Cannonballs for Kayne Cannonballs for Kayne, a pediatric brain cancer and DIPG research foundation, is committed to families, education and funding research for a cure. N.
(329)

Help us by donating today. Founder: Kayne Finley, 1999-2017 Kayne Finley, 17, was diagnosed with DIPG-Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma pediatric brain cancer on November 23, 2016. Follow his journey here.

Honored to be partnered together in support of the My DIPG Navigator program helping families tread through the beginnin...
09/03/2026

Honored to be partnered together in support of the My DIPG Navigator program helping families tread through the beginning stages of diagnosis and all along the way. 💛♥️💛

Twenty-seven. 🎂 With 9 unbearably painful years tacked to the end of the total. That's how old Kayne would be today. 🥰I...
09/02/2026

Twenty-seven. 🎂 With 9 unbearably painful years tacked to the end of the total. That's how old Kayne would be today. 🥰

I try to picture it, you know. What life would be like with 27-year-old Kayne. Maybe still living somewhere near the ocean. Maybe still swimming. Maybe with a job that made him laugh and prank others. Perhaps with a gentle dog by his side everywhere the way Dementor_the_Moose was. Maybe home for dinner on Sundays, giving me a jokingly hard time about my workouts, what’s for dinner and why I take so many pictures. 💦💜💛🐾

Instead, I get to hold Kayne in my mind’s memories, like a frozen computer screen with no way to unlock. In his little nephew’s face, smile and giggle when he eats ice cream. In every kid who has ever jumped a cannonball into a pool. In this foundation that carries his name, legacy and light for others. 🌟🍨💣

If you want to give him a birthday gift today, here's how:
🎗️ Donate $27 — one dollar for every year he should have been here. (cannonballs.org — link in bio)
🎗️ Share this post — say his name out loud today.
🎗️ Tell someone about DIPG — the brain tumor that took him from us. The one we are still working to cure.

Happy birthday, my sweet and precious son. I love you 27 years' worth, and every year forward. Your life mattered and we miss you so very much!
Love, Momma 💛

📸 Kayne on his way to swim practice, circa 2016.

🎗️

September is here. 🎗️For most people, September means back-to-school and the first hint of fall. For us — and for every ...
09/02/2026

September is here. 🎗️
For most people, September means back-to-school and the first hint of fall. For us — and for every family who has ever heard the letters DIPG and what they stand for — September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. And we go GOLD. 🥰🌟🙌

I've been quiet for a bit. Life has needed me elsewhere — “grandsitting”, work trips, family time and home improvements. But I'm back — because September has always mattered too much to our family to sit out. And because tomorrow, on September 2, our sweet and precious son and brother Kayne would be turning 27. More on that tomorrow. Tonight I want to remind you what Cannonballs For Kayne is here for:
💛 Funding research for a cure to DIPG — the pediatric brain tumor that took our son.
💛 Supporting families currently in the fight, through Cannonballs Cares.
💛 Pledging patient care facilities in Baton Rouge at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital.
💛 Educating our community so no other family has to Google "DIPG" from a hospital parking lot the way we did. DIPG - Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma matters.

Every dollar you give this month goes toward those priorities. Every share puts Kayne's name — and every child's name — in front of one more person who didn't know.

Please walk together this month with us. Wear your gold. Share our posts. Give what you can. Tell someone about DIPG.

Kayne is still doing work in this world. You are part of how.
With so much love,
Kirsten 🙏💛💣💦

📸 Kayne and Keagan, circa 2016
🔗 cannonballs.org🎗️

And just like that — May is behind us. 🩶Brain Tumor Action Month always hits differently in this family. But this year, ...
06/02/2026

And just like that — May is behind us. 🩶
Brain Tumor Action Month always hits differently in this family. But this year, we got to close it out with a number I'm still emotional about:

$5,395. 🎉

That's what the Scrappy Ladies of Daytona Area Scrapbooking raised for Cannonballs For Kayne at their Every May We Go Grey crop. To Tara and every woman in this photo — thank you. You turned a weekend of scrapbooking into research hours, gas tanks, and small comforts for families fighting pediatric brain cancer.

Thank you also to Masterpiece Jewelers, every Friend of Cannonballs who donated raffle prizes, and VFW Post 3282 Port Orange for opening your doors to us.

May we never stop going grey. 🩶🩶🩶

Honoring Memorial Day, with a soft acknowledgment of grief 🤍🕊️🤍Today we honor the men and women who gave their lives in ...
05/25/2026

Honoring Memorial Day, with a soft acknowledgment of grief 🤍🕊️🤍

Today we honor the men and women who gave their lives in service to this country. 🇺🇸

To the Gold Star families — the mothers, fathers, spouses, children, and siblings who carry the weight of that sacrifice every single day — we see you. Memorial Day belongs to you.

And to anyone else who finds days like today heavier than they expected — the ones marked by flags and parades and family cookouts, while you're quietly missing someone who isn't here — please know you aren't alone in that, either. Grief shows up uninvited on the days that are supposed to feel like rest.

If today is tender for you, be gentle with yourself. Light a soft, scented candle. Say their name out loud. Tell a sentimental story. Eat the red, ripe watermelon. Shed a few tears if you want. All of it counts as remembrance.

To the families of the fallen — thank you. We will never forget. 🩶💛🩶

Tomorrow I have an honor I never expected to carry. 🩶💙💚🩶Tomorrow night at the Volusia-Flagler High School Sports Awards ...
05/20/2026

Tomorrow I have an honor I never expected to carry. 🩶💙💚🩶

Tomorrow night at the Volusia-Flagler High School Sports Awards (presented by the Daytona Beach News-Journal and USA TODAY Network), I will be presenting the Kayne Finley Courage Award, sponsored by Halifax Health.

This photo is from the night the award was first given — in 2017, to Kayne. What I love about this photo is that our whole family was together. Left to right: Kendra (now Finley), Keagan, NFL MVP Matt Ryan (the keynote speaker that night), Kayne, me, and Curtis.

Kayne was living with terminal brain cancer when he received it. They recognized him for the courage he carried through it — alongside his commitment to his academics, his swimming, and his volleyball. He kept showing up. He kept being himself. That's what set him apart.

The award has been given every spring since. Each year it goes to a Volusia or Flagler County high school student athlete or coach who has shown courage in the face of adversity. Tomorrow night I get to hand it to the 2026 recipient. Every year, when I look at the kid receiving it, I think: Kayne is right here. Cheering you on.

Thank you, Halifax Health, for being part of this award every year since 2017.
With love,
Kirsten 🙏💛💣💦

Thank you to every one of you who showed up for Sunday's post. The reach, the comments, the messages — I read every one....
05/19/2026

Thank you to every one of you who showed up for Sunday's post. The reach, the comments, the messages — I read every one. Kayne and Dementor were carried by your love this weekend.

Big week ahead at Cannonballs For Kayne. Wednesday I'll be sharing a photo I love and a story I never thought I'd be telling. Thursday is one of my favorite nights of the year. Stay close.
With love,
Kirsten 🙏💛💣💦

Today is two anniversaries woven into one. 🩶✌️It is International DIPG/DMG Awareness Day — the one day every year when t...
05/17/2026

Today is two anniversaries woven into one. 🩶✌️

It is International DIPG/DMG Awareness Day — the one day every year when the families who have walked this unfamiliar road raise our voices together. Before Kayne, I had never heard the words DIPG or DMG. Most people haven't. Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma. Diffuse Midline Glioma. They are pediatric brain tumors. There is still no cure. We are working to change that.

It is also Dementor_the_Moose's heavenly birthday today. 🐾

This is one of our favorite photos of them — Kayne and Dementor on the Quad at LSU, autumn of 2017. You can see Dementor's service dog vest. You can see Kayne's scooter beside him — DIPG had begun stealing his mobility, but it hadn't touched his spirit. You can see what it looks like when an English Mastiff decides he has been assigned to one boy, and he does not leave his side.

Dementor was a gentle giant. A quiet shadow. The dignity in the room when DIPG was trying to take everything. He carried Kayne through hard days I cannot describe — and he carried us, too. When Kayne went, Dementor never quit. He kept loving us. Until it was his turn to follow. 🤍

We miss them both. Every day. Especially today.
If you are reading this and you want to do something — here is what your dollars do:
🩶 Fund DIPG/DMG research so the next family gets a different ending
🩶 Support patient care facilities caring for kids in active treatment
🩶 Help families afflicted with the practical weight of this diagnosis — meals, gas, groceries, rent when one parent has had to stop working.

Every gift, at every size, makes a real difference. $25 helps fill the gas tank for the drive to the clinic. $50 buys a lunch or dinner for a family during a long treatment day. $100 helps toward a first night’s lodging for a newly diagnosed family. $1,000 funds hours of research time that did not exist before you gave.

The link is in our bio. Or DM me — I will personally walk you through it.
Today we hold them. Tomorrow we keep fighting.
With so much love, Kirsten 🙏💛💣💦

05/11/2026

Friends — this Friday and Saturday, the Scrappy Ladies are going grey for our boy. 🩶

Daytona Area Scrapbooking is hosting their annual Go Grey in May event at the VFW in Port Orange, and every dollar raised goes directly to Cannonballs For Kayne — funding DIPG research and the families fighting right now, in honor of Kayne.

📅 Friday, May 15 — 12:00 to 6:00 pm
📅 Saturday, May 16 — 9:00 am to 6:00 pm
📍 Port Orange VFW
🩶 Raffles, participation prizes, and lunch on Saturday

Two full days of scrapbooking with people who get it, for a cause that matters. You'll meet others who shine Kayne's light. You'll go home with finished pages and a fuller heart.

It usually sells out. If you've been thinking about coming — this is your sign.

Register through the link in our bio, or DM me and I'll connect you. Tag a scrapbooker who would love this. Tag a friend who needs a weekend like this.

With so much love,
Kirsten 💛

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms — the ones holding babies, the ones holding memories, and the ones holding both. 🩶Thi...
05/10/2026

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms — the ones holding babies, the ones holding memories, and the ones holding both. 🩶

This is one of my favorites. I don't even remember the meet. I remember his hair was still wet. I remember he was tall enough that I had to look up to find his eyes. I remember thinking, I made this whole person.

To the mamas missing a child today: there is no script for this day. There is no right way to grieve. Whatever you need to do — celebrate, withdraw, cry, laugh, light a candle, skip church, eat cake for breakfast — it is all okay. Be gentle with yourselves. Be gentle with each other.

I'll be thinking of every mother I know who has lost a child. To DIPG. To every illness. To every accident. To every grief that should never have been hers. You are not alone today.

Kayne made me a mom. He still does.

With so much love,
Kirsten 💛

Address

PO Box 1738
Ormond Beach, FL
32175

Telephone

+18599911084

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Cannonballs for Kayne posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Cannonballs for Kayne:

Shortcuts

Share

Category