Superhero Boxes

Have you heard that kids are SUPER! Have you heard about us, Characters of Character NFP? Our organization has been around since 2007 and only relocated here in Tennessee about four years ago.

So far, so good! You are now stuck with us because we love everything about Tennessee, the people, the places, the music and the landscape. My husband asks me all the time, "why didn't we move here sooner?" and I reply, "because it wasn't time"

While we lived in a small northwest suburb, we knew we wanted to move here to Tennessee. Our adult kids gave us their blessing, we have no grand kids and my passion to teach our children these values is tugging at my heart. I wrote a grant to the Nashville Predators Foundation to donate our Superhero Character Building activity boxes to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, and we were awarded it! Woo-Hoo was what we said and our decision was made. It must be meant to be. God has a plan.

It didn't take long to sell our home and find a rental down here, a few months actually and we were on our way. Now the hard part, to continue to find funding to continue to donate our Superhero boxes to Children in the hospitals. It was all falling into place that's for sure. We remain a registered nonprofit in Illinois and also registered in Tennessee.

Being a nonprofit takes work, diligence, persistence and a lot of time. But, for me, it's worth it because we have seen, we have heard and we have felt the impact and the difference that these Characters of Character are making in the life of a child. And so, one presses on. A dear friend of mine once asked me, "How do you do it?" While it took me a bit to come to this realization, but none the less, I did, it's that it is not about me, it's about the organization, it's about making a difference and it's the all in feeling of giving it your all to do so. It took years to come to this, at first rejections felt personal, rejections felt like failure, rejection felt like giving up. That my friend, is not and will never be an option! Another dear friend said that we have dedicated our life to the characters and she is correct. Another friend said that we are enhancing the future leaders and she is correct. Another friend said that she is so proud of what we have accomplished, built and continue to pour into our children, families and communities, I said, "thank you"

The Superhero boxes only came into existence because of the Pandemic. Our first outreach was to a local hospital in Illinois where our character Warm-Hearted Walrus brought some books and activities for the children to work on, and once we saw the impact and the need for positive activities we put more thought into it and put some funding into it to design the Superhero boxes. This is when I began writing grants and connected with the Nashville Predators who have donated an additional two times! We brought the Superhero boxes to Vandy and also to Fort Campbell Army Base with their support.

Since then, 2021 we have donated to:

• Vanderbilt Children's Hospital
• Kids Rainbow Clinic in Clarksville
• East Tennessee Children's Hospital now Dolly Parton Children's Hospital
• Fort Campbell Army Base
• Grace and Pride Prep School in Clarksville
• the YMCA in Robertson and Rutherford counties
• Shriner's in Chicago
• Ann and Robert Lurie's in Chicago
• Northwestern Medicine in McHenry, Woodstock, Huntley and Decatur Illinois
• Comer's Children's Hospital in Chicago
• Rush in Chicago
• Nemours Children's Hospital in Delaware

We are pretty proud of our accomplishments and living our mission, our purpose and impacting, engaging and empowering our children and youth with our messages, lessons and activities to let them know that they are SUPER!

What a feeling! While we know that children are in the hospital daily, be it for an emergency room visit, a stay to heal or visit for treatments. This breaks our hearts because we are not in there with them. With out funding, we can't just donate the boxes, we need support from donors, artists, companies, corporations, etc. to fulfill these activity boxes and continue to bring so much joy to each and everyone of the girls and boys who receive them. Staff shared that they love them because the redirect a child's fear of being in the hospital and they can better help the child and family by calming the child down. It makes sense doesn't it?

If you would like to learn more about our project for the Children's Hospitals, please reach out and visit our website. The Children's Hospitals will remain our forever project as we have connected with Fort Campbell and work on funds to continue to bring them to their schools on the base. I've had heartfelt talks with staff, families and the kiddo's who have embraced the characters. This Spring we brought Do'er Duck and Manners Monkey there and did projects, talked about the trait, made a paper bag puppet and had fun with the children, my heart was full and could use a refill!

We'd love to hear from you!

Miss Joni and Team Characters