The true rewards of Giving Day
It seems fitting that a nonprofit all about children, though born out of trauma, has matured to foster trust and collaboration while embracing the wisdom of the child.
Founder Lexi Kelley even uses the phrase “my little brainchild” to refer to Kids Helping Kids (KHK), which she has nurtured for a decade. She was just 12 when a car accident led to facial reconstructive surgery and weeks in the hospital in 2009.
Lexi was so moved by the support of peers that she wanted to bottle that feeling and share it. Kids Helping Kids started with small kindnesses and matured into a formal agency. Middle and high school students learn leadership skills while supporting children in need. The adults in the room stay out of the way.
She might have left Kids Helping Kids behind like a cherished childhood toy as she prepared for college. Four years ago, KHK participated in Giving Day, an annual fundraising initiative facilitated by Fairfield County’s Community Foundation. This too, had a modest start, with 15 donors raising $1,300.
Giving Day includes contests to earn matching funds, balancing the field by rewarding groups for volume of donations, which can be as small as $10.
One year later, the kids — triggered by a single, persuasive sixthgrader — seized opportunities Lexi’s mother, Jennifer, couldn’t imagine. “The power of kids is that they don’t see nos, they see yeses,” Jennifer says.
If this were a Disney flick, this is where we dissolve to the montage of word spreading from kid to kid through school hallways, shops and neighborhoods. The ripples spread as wide as Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, where Lexi gets help from her sorority sisters. After a day of teaching, her mom finally checks her phone at 3 p.m. to a storybook finale.
By day’s end, KHK pulled in 625 donations totaling $18,000, second only to Stamford’s Curtain Call. Members also leveraged the foundation’s workshops. In the last three years, they raised more than $100,000 through Giving Day.
Fairfield County’s Community Foundation President Juanita James isn’t in a position to choose favorites but concedes “every time I talk about Kids Helping Kids it brings such a smile to my face.”
This year’s Giving Day is Thursday, Feb. 28, and will again include prizes throughout the 24-hour marathon (“most unique donors,” “Top of the Morning Prize,” “All About the Environment Power Hour,” etc.).
“Giving Day for me is about making philanthropy accessible for everyone,” James says.
KHK’s signature event is its Pumpkin Bread Bake Sale fundraiser, the seeds of which were planted a few years before Lexi’s accident. She and Jennifer baked breads and sold them in their Stamford neighborhood, giving proceeds to nonprofits.
Flash forward to today. The group drew participation last year from 375 children from Greenwich to Danbury. KHK’s Board of Directors includes Chip Cingari, owner of Grade A ShopRite in Stamford. Cingari opened his bakery to the children to make 300 breads. Jennifer was initially hesistant, but “the kids said, ‘you’re crazy, we’re definitely going to do that.’ ”
Growth also allowed them to hire Rebecca Cosgrove last summer to take over as executive director. Cosgrove offers deep experience with nonprofits, notably as the former program director for Ben’s Lighthouse, created in the wake of the Newtown tragedy in 2012. Cosgrove says she sees KHK’s role as “helping kids find what their superpower is.”
The Kelleys’ superpower may be mining the restraint to let go, to give Cosgrove the freedom to navigate KHK in new directions.
“Lexi and I wanted this to live on past us,” Jennifer says. “That would be the greatest accomplishment.”
Cosgrove, in turn, reveals the “long-term goal is to get kids beyond their communities, (working) with other parts of the country.”
Last semester, Lexi was challenged in her “Spirituality and Transformation” class to deliver a final project reflecting on the lessons of her accident. It revived memories of the moment she decided “let’s stop the pity party and see what we can do.” It takes just a little coaxing to persuade her to reveal she earned an “A.”
As she enters her final weeks of college, Lexi takes measure of lessons from outside the classroom. One is that she must now follow a gluten-free diet. In other words, no more pumpkin bread. And she no longer qualifies as an active member of her own creation.
“After high school I was obviously sad to leave the front lines, it was such a huge part of my identity.”
Yes, Lexi is no longer a kid. But her “little brainchild” is still growing, still maturing, still striving to teach the most important lesson of all: empathy.