** Founding Story **
MyName is Jen, this is MyStory...
Name: Jen Rubino
Age: 18
State: Illinois, USA
Education: Senior, High School
Age: 18
State: Illinois, USA
Education: Senior, High School
Lifting up others is truly the best way to lift yourself up...
My name is Jen Rubino and I am the founder of Cards for Hospitalized Kids (CFHK), a charitable organization that distributes handmade cards to hospitalized and seriously illkids all across the USA. Doctors provide medicine and we provide hope, joy & magic through cards. My inspiration for founding CFHK came from my own experience as "hospitalized kid" which began in 2006, when I was 11. At age 11, I began suffering from a connective tissue disorder that affects my bones, muscles and connective tissues. My condition causes chronic pain and has forced me to undergo over 20 surgeries in the last six years.
My experiences in the hospital showed me how difficult it is to be hospitalized and/or seriously ill as a young person. Kids being treated in the hospital often feel sad, lonely and isolated. They also miss out on many of the little things in life that most kids take for granted such as going to school regularly, playing sports or going to school dances.
There was one specific, very difficult hospital stay in which I felt close to losing hope, but a kind gesture from a hospital volunteer helped me maintain hope and I founded CFHK to do that for other kids. As the founder of CFHK, I am able to combine my own experiences as a patient and my desire to help others in a way that allows me to help young people, and their families, nationwide who are facing the struggles I have faced and continue to face.
Using instructions on the CFHK website I set up, people and groups from all across the USA—schools, teams, families, friends, sororities, community groups and more—use their time and creative skills to make handmade cards and send them to my charity to distribute to hospitals. Cards have also recently started arriving from other countries such as Australia, Japan, Israel, New Zealand and more. Dozens of celebrities, such as Olympian Aly Raisman, MTV star Lauren Conrad, Singer Jesse McCartney and more, have also gotten involved with my charity by donating autographs for patients to receive along with their cards.
Since inception, over 19,000 kids in more than 200 hospitals have received handmade cards from my charity, CFHK. We also provide other support such as recovery inspiration journals, supportive letters from someone who has battled the same or a similar illness, handmade drawings to decorate their hospital room and more.
More so than the data, it is the individual stories that help me see the impact of my work doing CFHK. For example, at a local card-making event for my charity, a teen girl named Mackenzie came to make cards. She had undergone a heart transplant months earlier and spent weeks in the hospital recovering. During her recovery, she received a card, autographed photo from Lauren Conrad(one of our celebrity supporters), recovery journal and letter from me. Mackenzie was now doing much better and she came to the event to help us make cards to brighten the days of other kids just as we once brightened her day.
I started CFHK to help others but I also ended up helping myself, as well. Lifting up others is truly the best way to lift yourself up and I know it will be the same for other people who give back.
For information on getting involved with Cards for Hospitalized Kids, visit www.cardsforhospitalizedkids.com and watch this powerfull video:
My experiences in the hospital showed me how difficult it is to be hospitalized and/or seriously ill as a young person. Kids being treated in the hospital often feel sad, lonely and isolated. They also miss out on many of the little things in life that most kids take for granted such as going to school regularly, playing sports or going to school dances.
There was one specific, very difficult hospital stay in which I felt close to losing hope, but a kind gesture from a hospital volunteer helped me maintain hope and I founded CFHK to do that for other kids. As the founder of CFHK, I am able to combine my own experiences as a patient and my desire to help others in a way that allows me to help young people, and their families, nationwide who are facing the struggles I have faced and continue to face.
Using instructions on the CFHK website I set up, people and groups from all across the USA—schools, teams, families, friends, sororities, community groups and more—use their time and creative skills to make handmade cards and send them to my charity to distribute to hospitals. Cards have also recently started arriving from other countries such as Australia, Japan, Israel, New Zealand and more. Dozens of celebrities, such as Olympian Aly Raisman, MTV star Lauren Conrad, Singer Jesse McCartney and more, have also gotten involved with my charity by donating autographs for patients to receive along with their cards.
Since inception, over 19,000 kids in more than 200 hospitals have received handmade cards from my charity, CFHK. We also provide other support such as recovery inspiration journals, supportive letters from someone who has battled the same or a similar illness, handmade drawings to decorate their hospital room and more.
More so than the data, it is the individual stories that help me see the impact of my work doing CFHK. For example, at a local card-making event for my charity, a teen girl named Mackenzie came to make cards. She had undergone a heart transplant months earlier and spent weeks in the hospital recovering. During her recovery, she received a card, autographed photo from Lauren Conrad(one of our celebrity supporters), recovery journal and letter from me. Mackenzie was now doing much better and she came to the event to help us make cards to brighten the days of other kids just as we once brightened her day.
I started CFHK to help others but I also ended up helping myself, as well. Lifting up others is truly the best way to lift yourself up and I know it will be the same for other people who give back.
For information on getting involved with Cards for Hospitalized Kids, visit www.cardsforhospitalizedkids.com and watch this powerfull video:
Reflection Questions:
1 Have you ever had a health-related challenge that has prevented you from reaching your full potential in school or in other areas? What steps have you taken to conquer this challenge?
2 Do you have a cause you are passionate about? What action have you taken/can you take to further this cause?
3 How quickly do you take action when you find out about something you believe in? How can you take action more quickly and effectively? How can you inspire your peers to do the same?
4 Are you involved in something that “lifts others”? Would you like to be? What are some tangible and intangible things you can do right now that will help someone else?
1 Have you ever had a health-related challenge that has prevented you from reaching your full potential in school or in other areas? What steps have you taken to conquer this challenge?
2 Do you have a cause you are passionate about? What action have you taken/can you take to further this cause?
3 How quickly do you take action when you find out about something you believe in? How can you take action more quickly and effectively? How can you inspire your peers to do the same?
4 Are you involved in something that “lifts others”? Would you like to be? What are some tangible and intangible things you can do right now that will help someone else?
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