Making Spirits Bright is always looking for new ways to engage with our local communities and support fellow nonprofit organizations in providing books to the children they serve. Which is why we want to take some time to promote our partner, Kids Kicking Cancer. It was started in 1999 by Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg after he discovered the amazing benefits of martial arts meditation and breathing techniques. From research, he discovered that these meditative techniques have proven successful in reducing pain and stress in children who have cancer and other chronic illnesses. It has even shown success in their otherwise healthy siblings. As the program grew, parents, doctors, and many others began to notice the changes in the children who joined the classes. Amazed as they witnessed their kids utilizing a technique for taking control of pain, fear, and anger. As a result, Kids Kicking Cancer https://www.instagram.com/kidskickcancer/ expanded from servicing only pediatric cancer patients into Heroes Circle, an initiative dedicated to lowering the pain and stress of ALL children. As of today, they have expanded their programming to reach children in 21 U.S. states and 10 different countries!
As Heroes Circle has expanded, they have decided to focus their work around two main strategic areas: Pediatric healing and School Healing. Within their Pediatric Healing Program, they have classes that teach traditional karate moves along with the mind-body techniques of meditation, breathing, relaxation, and visualization to help dramatically lower their pain levels. Children can participate not only in the Dojo but also learn anywhere, whether at home or in a hospital room. Children and their families can access all the organization’s martial arts and therapeutic training videos and activities. They are also able to connect with instructors all over the world.
With their School Healing Program, they teach more resilience-building and empowerment to help mitigate the effects of toxic stress and help equip children to be successful not only in the classroom but in life. The goal of the program is to help them take control of their stress both in and outside of the classroom, providing easy-to-navigate and integrated lesson plans that teachers can incorporate into their daily discussions. This program has provided support for students all over, teaching them self-regulation and the impact. of stress on their body and how they can manage it, as well as giving these students opportunities to talk, listen, think, and understand themselves and their peers.
With their partnership with Kids Kicking Cancer, Making Spirits Bright helps empower the children in the program by providing books. Every quarter, books from Making Spirits Bright are donated to the dojos for students to take their favorite books home every week after class. These books fill the children’s bookshelves with stories teaching about diversity, empathy, and how to show compassion for others.
To help raise money for their organization, they hold different events throughout the year. A big upcoming event for them would be that they are celebrating their 25th anniversary in May with a big celebration and dinner to commemorate all the work that has been done and to offer tribute to the founder, Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg. For more information about donating or participating in this anniversary event, go to the Heroes Circle link here. Outside of this, they hold other events to raise awareness and money in support of the children in the programs. One of these other events includes an annual golf outing and dinner that brings together members of the community to a beautiful 18-hole golf course.
The money they raise not only supports current children in the program but it provides the opportunity for more children to learn different techniques to “breathe in the light and blow out the darkness”. If you wish to donate to this non-profit, please use this LINK here, where they offer multiple different methods to allow members of the community to help support these children. If you wish to follow the stories of this organization’s progress and work, then you can connect with them on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
If you have any other questions or inquiries about their program or how you can help you can help you can go to their contact page and message them. You can also use this link if you wish to enroll your child in any of Hero’s Circles dojo classes or for their stress-relieving techniques.
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About the Author:
Olivia Agnew is a senior at Northwood University where she is studying Marketing with a minor in Marketing Communications. In her free time, she can be found reading, watching tv, spending time with friends, or practicing for an upcoming speech competition.
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