About Garrett's KidStrong
Garrett's KidStrong has great news! We have received our 501(c)(3)
tax exempt status!
Our mission is...
To offer Hope, Healing and Happiness for Kids and Families living with Childhood Cancer.
Garrett's KidStrong is the dream of a brave
little boy with cancer. Read Garrett's story here. Garrett's only wish while on treatment was to be able to play and to have fun and to just be a kid again. Garrett and his mother began talking about a program to help kids with cancer have fun again. A group of families who have also had childhood cancer experiences joined together with Garrett's mother and with the support of founder and executive director of Youth InterACTIVE, Garrett's KidStrong Program was created. Sadly, in the early hours of Feb 1, 2005, at the young, innocent age of 9, Garrett lost his long, hard fought battle with cancer before he could see his dream come true. Garrett's KidStrong Program was launched in Sept, 2005 in honor of National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. The program is based in Austin, Texas, currently serving the Greater Central Texas Area and our goal is to become a national program to help kids and families everywhere.
Garrett's KidStrong program provides a very important, yet sadly often overlooked, informal support system for the whole family living with Childhood Cancer. We offer hope and encouragement by creating opportunities for survivors to meet and talk with other survivors in a relaxed and comfortable environment. We are childhood cancer survivors who share our stories and our valuable resources to help other families gain the knowledge and the power which are essential in a strong fight against cancer.
Garrett's KidStrong gives a child living with cancer the chance to have fun and to just be a normal kid again.
We provide fun activities which are designed to create a positive distraction for kids with cancer who are confined to the hospital and for kids in the oncology clinic receiving treatments. We also provide fun and safe activities for kids and families who are living with childhood cancer and are not confined to the hospital, but whose daily activities are severely limited by challenged immune systems and low counts. Activities that healthy children will enjoy everyday can become too dangerous for a child on chemo.
Many children on treatment will miss extended periods of school and can become isolated from their friends and peers. Kids with cancer miss out on so many opportunities for normal childhood fun and social interaction that are important to a young child's healthy emotional development. Garrett's KidStrong activities give kids with cancer a chance to get together with other childhood cancer survivors their own age - other kids who truly understand what it feels like to be scared, to be bald and to be sick from the harsh chemo treatments they all so bravely endure. Our activities are designed to give a child with cancer the chance to just be a normal kid again....to have fun, to smile and to laugh during a time in their lives when reasons to smile may seem scarce and hard to find.
Garrett's KidStrong provides fun activities that are safe for children with challenged immune systems.
All kids deserve to have fun, yet kids with cancer have so few chances to just enjoy being a child. Challenged immune systems impose severe limitations on the activities of the child and on every member of the family. Garrett's KidStrong creates fun and safe opportunities that give kids with cancer, and give their entire family, a chance to have fun again. We arrange for a business to open exclusively for our families when at all possible and take the necessary precautions to make the environment as germ free and safe as we can provide.
We offer activities such as movies, bowling, putt putt, family dinners and picnics, Parents Night Out, holiday parties, tickets to professional and college sporting events with an opportunity to meet some of the players and get autographs, trips to the San Antonio zoo, Six Flags and Sea World and a weekend family beach retreat are just a few of our ideas to help brighten families lives who are living with childhood cancer. The entire family will leave our activities with a renewed sense of strength and hope and with a more positive attitude towards their cancer experience. A positive attitude can play a very important role for a cancer survivor and can help foster a healthier, and more complete, physical and emotional recovery.
It is not just the child diagnosed with cancer that is affected with isolation from their peers and friends. When a brother or sister is diagnosed with cancer, their diagnosis will limit every sibling in the family in their activities due to the fact that the family does not want outside contamination to come into their home. A family that has a childhood cancer diagnosis cannot have friends over to play or sleep overs or even birthday parties at their home. Garrett's KidStrong program provides the siblings with the same kind of fun as the child diagnosed with cancer. Everyone in the family is encouraged and welcome to participate in any of our activities.
Garrett's KidStrong offers informal support for families beginning at a child's cancer diagnosis and we will continue to be there through every stage of their cancer survivorship.
There are many programs for adults with cancer and a few programs for teens with cancer, but sadly, our youngest cancer survivors have slipped through the cracks. Garrett's KidStrong was created to fill that gap.
We provide a solid and consistent informal support system which can play a vital role during treatment and beyond as they live for the rest of their lives as strong cancer survivors.
Our activities include families who have a young child on treatment and we continue to offer our support after treatment ends because we understand that a child's cancer diagnosis lasts a lifetime. The fear of relapse, future health complications and secondary cancers resulting from the many years of treatment will forever lurk in the shadows in our minds. Most professionals in the field recognize the importance of survivor support past treatment...yet there is little to be found for our kids and families.
Garrett's KidStrong activities also include families who are grieving the loss of a young child with cancer. Our support begins with a child's cancer diagnosis and continues through out the whole journey. We do not withdraw the offer of our support when a family loses a child after a long, hard fought battle. The death of a child can be the most difficult and devastating experience a family will ever go through. We provide a positive distraction to their grief and we are there to let them know they are not alone.
We've been there and we care!
Garrett's KidStrong Program was created by families who have all had a childhood cancer experience and we choose to use our experiences to help other families whose lives have been impacted by this horrible disease. We know that Childhood Cancer can be the most devastating and isolating experiences a family will ever go through and that a child's cancer diagnosis lasts a lifetime. We understand that cancer is a physically, emotionally and financially devastating disease. We know how extremely difficult it can be to cope with the fear, the depression and the many new daily challenges that childhood cancer can create.
Garrett's KidStrong is committed to dramatically improve the overall quality of life for the entire family living with childhood cancer and to make a positive impact on their lives, no matter what the outcome may be. All of our activities are provided free of charge so there is no added financial stress on the family and no one is left behind. It is our goal to offer hope, encouragement and compassion and to make sure no family will ever have to fight cancer or face bereavement alone!
