Sharing a passion to equip kids with the hope and sense of fulfillment necessary to fight cancer, senior communication studies major, Jeremiah Silvey, and Hollywood producer, Tron Jones, launched Kids Are The Future, a non-profit organization targeted at building long term relationships with kids suffering from cancer.
UNIQUE NON-PROFIT MINISTRY
“We realized that a lot of nonprofits particularly focus on cancer research. So they’ll collect money and give it to kids’ cancer research or they’ll temporarily come in to relieve the kid, give them something, and then boom, it’s over and they don’t give the kid that much hope. So we wanted to breathe a lot of hope into the kids’ lives and walk with them and encourage them,” Silvey said.
Tron Jones, Kids Are The Future’s co-founder and president, said that he was inspired to start the non-profit after working in the valet department of multiple hospitals.
“I would see kids come in and never come out. I noticed that most non-profits only came out once, right before the kid died,” Jones said.
FULFILLMENT BY GIVING
Kids Are The Future builds relationships with kids suffering from cancer, mainly though giving them outlets to serve and give back to their community.
“That’s one of the ways you can receive fulfillment — it’s by giving. Say, for example, they have a heart for the kids in Africa, we’re going in to help them fulfill their dreams and give back to the community,” Silvey said.
As the target audience of Kids Are The Future, children between the ages of 6 and 14 are able to give back by sharing their stories. These stories will go into children’s books aimed at inspiring kids under the age of 6 who are also suffering from cancer.
“Kids don’t necessarily look up to adults; they look up to kids a little older than them. So by getting a kid’s story and helping them understand that they have purpose, it’s a positive encouragement to their life,” Silvey said.
USING BLOGGING TO ENCOURAGE
The organization also tries to encourage the parents of the kids through their blogging efforts.
“We’re going to have writers blogging for the adult audience and the parents as well. It will be an encouragement to the parents who are going to have to go through nurturing a child who has terminal cancer,” Silvey said.
After the communications training he’s received at Biola, Silvey said that he feels called to help kids with cancer express themselves.
“The biggest thing is getting the kids’ voices out. Six-year-olds who have cancer, up to 14-year-olds — they don’t have the communication skills that I’ve been able to develop. So one of my purposes is to be able to properly communicate their want to help the world and then collaborate with others to help them do that,” Silvey said.
EFFORTS TO EXPAND THE NON-PROFIT
Jones and Silvey also hope to begin expanding the non-profit by marketing the cause at conventions and garnering awareness via TV and radio.
“We want to get our name out there,” Jones said.
Silvey and Jones agreed that the process of starting a non-profit begins with finding the right team of people who share the same mission.
“Tron started presenting his ideas and his plan to me (for Kids Are The Future) and I got really excited because I realized that that was my dream,” Silvey said.
Before meeting Jones, Silvey explained that his goal was to go into business, make a lot of money and then give it away to missions. After meeting Jones and hearing his vision for Kids Are The Future, Silvey felt called to help.
“A lot of people can dream, but it’s those everyday life choices that actually makes those dreams happen — studying, researching, marketing, networking and getting out there,” Silvey advised.
As the non-profit continues to expand, Jones and Silvey claim that their mission will remain the same. They will continue to operate based on their simple belief that building encouraging relationships with kids will help them live their lives to the fullest.
“We believe in changing the world one smile at a time. We have a belief that if you think you’re sick, you’re going to stay sick. But if you change that around with a smile, it’s going to change their life around — they will live,” Jones said.
