Where We've Been
How It Started
When Emmy's scans started coming back clear, Mike and Aja began thinking about how to give back to other families in the same storm. They announced Emmy's Friends from the Campout for the Cause stage in June 2018, and formally incorporated the foundation the following year, built around a single focus: the things that fall through the cracks when a child is sick. Nutrition. Wellness. Connection. The things that sustain a family through the long middle of a hard journey.
Where It Started
Campout for the Cause
Three years at The Meadows in Buena Vista, Colorado. This is where Emmy's Friends first showed up in public, and where the community showed up for this family.
2017
A handmade Sweet Shop, a donation jar, and prayer flags the community covered in their own words.
2018
Emmy's scans came back clear and her port was removed, and the crowd more than doubled.
2019
Emmy's Friends Foundation made its public debut, with tea service, a lemonade stand, and butterflies overhead.
Where You'll Find Us
Smalltown Gathering is a three-day music, yoga, and community festival in the heart of the Colorado Rockies, the kind of event where families show up, slow down, and connect. Emmy's Friends will be there with a booth. Come find us, say hello, and learn more about what we're building.
This is the same festival that first gathered around our family during the Campout for the Cause years. It has since moved to Salida and become the Smalltown Gathering, and we're proud to return.
Where We're Going
Updated Booth Presence
Emmy's Friends began in a handmade booth at a festival, and that is still where you will find us. We show up at Smalltown Gathering and events like it to meet people, share what we are doing, and stay part of the community we came from.
Tough Little Bug Shop
Stickers, patches, and hats carrying the language that got this family through treatment. Phrases like Slayer of Monsters, Ring Your Own Bell, and Tough Little Bug, made for kids who have been through something hard and the people who love them. Proceeds go back into the work.
Also in the Mix
Ideas From the Journey
Below is a collection of ideas that grew naturally out of this family's journey with pediatric cancer. We can't commit to building them alone at our current stage, but our hope is to connect and partner with people already doing this work, and with those who feel inspired to start.
Smoothie Activation
When a child can barely eat, a low-sugar, whole-fruit smoothie makes a real difference. We would love to see nourishing smoothies reach families in hospitals and treatment housing, and to support the people and programs already working to make that happen.
Fresh Produce Delivery
Families in treatment deserve easy access to fresh fruit and vegetables, without having to go further than their door to get it. We would love to support the programs that can help make that happen.
Kids Zone Pop-Up
Joy is powerful medicine. A pop-up Kids Zone bringing face painting, music, art, and movement into a hospital common space or courtyard, an activation idea drawn from years of festival programming. We'd love to support and participate in seeing this come to fruition.
Bike & Chariot Lending
Bikes and kid chariots give families in treatment housing a way to get outside and move through a city instead of being stuck in a room. If you have bikes, storage, or a lending program already running, we would love to help.
Ways this could take shape
A good smoothie is low-sugar, whole-fruit, and made to go down easy. Depending on the partner and the place, it could look like any of these.
- Hospital Cart. A volunteer-staffed smoothie station in a family lounge, one morning a week.
- 24/7 Machine. A touchscreen unit that runs overnight, so there is something nourishing at 2am when the cafeteria is closed.
- Food Truck. Mobile smoothies, local produce, and medically informed snacks that travel to hospitals and treatment housing.
- Room Delivery. Volunteers bring smoothies straight to inpatient families who cannot come to a common space.
- Smoothie Kit. Ingredients and recipe cards delivered to treatment housing kitchens.
- Recipe Guide. A free printable guide to nausea-aware, low-sugar smoothies, for the broadest reach.
Any smoothie that reaches these families should be low-sugar and genuinely delicious for kids. Flavor from whole fruit, anti-nausea ingredients where they help, nutrition that respects what the body is going through.
Ways this could take shape
Getting fresh fruit and vegetables to families in treatment housing, close to the hospital but far from a grocery store.
- Regular produce boxes. Fresh fruit and vegetables delivered to housing kitchens on a set schedule.
- After-discharge focus. Extra support in the first weeks home, when formal help drops off.
- Partner sourcing. Working with food banks, farms, or CSAs already moving produce.
- Kid-friendly and medical needs. Options that fit treatment diets and picky eaters alike.
- Mobile delivery. A produce truck or cart that brings fresh food straight to treatment housing, an idea we share with the Smoothie Activation.
Ways this could take shape
A pocket of joy in a hospital common space or courtyard, drawn from years of kids programming at festivals like Campout for the Cause.
- Creative stations. Face painting, art tables, instruments, and hands-on making.
- Live music and movement. Gentle performance and room to move.
- Where families already are. Hospital common spaces, courtyards, and housing facilities.
- Festival roots. The idea draws on years of kids programming at festivals we have been part of.
Ways this could take shape
A way for families to get outside and move through a city instead of being confined to a room.
- Bikes and kid chariots. Adult bikes plus trailers so the whole family can get out together.
- Based at housing. Kept on-site at treatment housing for easy access.
- Safety first. Helmets, locks, and a simple check-out.
- Getting to safe ground. Not every hospital sits in a place where riding out the door is safe or simple, so this could also mean helping transport a family and their bikes.
- Routes and maps. Easy loops that make a new city feel navigable.
Ways to Help
Things You Can Do Today
While we build toward the ideas above, here are a few ways to make a difference right now.
Blood saved Emmy's life
Mike called it a bag of life. Watching a transfusion change his daughter showed him exactly what donation does for a child in treatment. The need is constant, and giving is one of the most direct ways to help a kid like Emmy.
Follow the journey
We share Emmy's story, our events, and what we're building. Our channels have been quiet for some time, but they're waking back up. Follow now so you don't miss it.
Support the work
We're still getting set up as a nonprofit, so we can't accept gifts just yet. Check back soon, and join the mailing list so we can tell you the moment giving opens.
Community & Ecosystem
Who We Stand With
The community that showed up for our family, and the organizations whose work points in the same direction as ours. Some of these relationships are personal. All of them matter to how we think about what we're building and the kind of work we support.
The community that supported Emmy's Friends from the beginning, through Campout for the Cause. We're returning to this event in September 2026.
Emmy's family stayed here for 190 days. It was nothing short of a game changer.
brentsplace.orgEmmy's family stayed here during Boston proton therapy. Seven apartments, right across from Mass General.
christophershaven.orgEmmy received her wish after treatment ended. We know firsthand what it means.
wish.orgDenver nonprofit. 815,000 medically tailored meals per year. Free. All household members qualify.
projectangelheart.orgChildren's Hospital Colorado. Garden and nutrition programming embedded in pediatric oncology care.
Read more →National treatment housing network. Keeps families close to their child during treatment.
rmhc.org94,000+ children photographed in treatment. Free professional portraits for kids and families.
flashesofhope.orgIf you have resources, expertise, or work already underway that we can support, we would love to hear from you.
Reach Out