Our Story
Founded in Maryland in 2006, the Cool Kids Campaign, has carried out its mission to directly impact children fighting cancer through academic, social and emotional programming. While deciding on our foundation’s name, we kept in mind that kids are kids regardless if they are healthy or sick. Hence the Cool Kids name. Every child wants to feel “cool” even when they don’t feel well.
Deeply rooted in the heart and mind of Founder and President, Chris Federico, was a desire to serve others and honor his mother Susannah’s life after her battle with leukemia and passing in 1995. Once a child becomes a Cool Kid, they are a “Forever Member” because we recognize that the long term effects of a cancer diagnosis are not just for children currently in treatment, but for those in remission and for the siblings of our angels that have passed on.
In 2011, we opened the doors to our first Clubhouse in Towson, Maryland which is dedicated to Baltimore Orioles baseball Hall of Famer and Board Member, Ken Singleton. In 2020, we opened our second Clubhouse in Huntersville, North Carolina in honor of Olympic gold medalist and Board Member, Dan Jansen.
Our Clubhouses provide a number of social and emotional activities such as monthly movie nights, seasonal parties and parent support groups. Each year, since 2016, our Maryland Clubhouse hosts our annual weekend camp. Both Clubhouses provide opportunities for our families to vacation at either our Myrtle Beach, South Carolina vacation condo or our Lewes Beach, DE vacation condo. Starting in 2018, we transformed our Clubhouses for our themed Smile Celebrations as we celebrate the birthdays, end of treatment and other milestone moments through personalized parties. It is our goal to celebrate our kids’ lives every step of the way and to find ways to provide support. Our partnership with Brain Bodega helps to provide our Cool Kids with free online tutoring to help with the challenges they often face academically due to illness and absence from school.
We also work to empower our Cool Kids with our trademarked slogan “Cancer Fears Me” products such as t-shirts, chemo caps, bags and temporary tattoos. Each quarter we publish the Cool Kids Connection newspaper which we mail to over 30 hospitals in the United States treating pediatric oncology patients. The Connection contains stories and activities for and by our Cool Kids families.
Our future goals include the opening of additional clubhouses, vacation homes and an expanded tutoring program.
We know that we cannot do it all, but it is our desire is to partner with other like-minded organizations as we all work to completely take care of our Cool Kids and meet the various needs of pediatric oncology patients and their immediate families. We hope you will join our “Forever Member” kids by supporting our mission financially, through in-kind donations, volunteerism and partnerships as we will continue to “Support The Coolest Kids Fighting Cancer!”