News

We are proud to announce our selection as Best of Gwinnett for 2011 in the category of Best Local Charity. Thank you to all of our supporters and volunteers for making this possible – but more so for helping drive our organization to being worthy of this honor. Founders Justin Hutchinson and Kevin Ford are excited to receive this award less than 3 years from inception of the organization.

“We’re honored by being selected for this award. It’s amazing to see what we’ve accomplished in such short time and recognition like this gives us further inspiration to grow our impact in the community,” says Hutchinson.

Ford adds, “With our rapidly increasing impact in Gwinnett and surrounding counties, we are reminded not just how far we’ve come, but how much further we have to go. We can create, build, and grow a terrific organization, but it takes people to continue making that dream a reality- and for those people we are very appreciative.”

Kingdom Kids recently announced their donations exceeding $300,000 to local families and organizations in just under 3 years.

Congratulations to one of our Kingdom Kids, Lily Anderson, for knocking it out of the park on Thursday evening, July 28th! Lily sang the national anthem in front of thousands at the Braves vs Pirates game and she nailed it! To support Lily and her “pay it forward” event, Lily’s Run 2011, please check back here for details this Fall!

Lily’s Run is back and better than ever! Lily Anderson and Kingdom Kids are once again partnering to grant wishes for some very special kiddos! Kingdom Kids is honored to support Bo, McKenna, Sarah, Will, and Jackson for this year’s event!

Lily

In September 2009 Lily was diagnosed with stage 4 Neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer that came in the form a large tumor in her abdomen. By the time they found it, the cancer had also spread to her bones and bone marrow. Lily endured several rounds of chemotherapy, surgeries, a stem cell transplant, radiation, and anti-body therapy. She completed her treatment in October 2010 and earlier this year a scan showed the cancer had returned in her pelvis and spine. She is once again in the fight of her life.

Lily started chemotherapy in March and lost her hair for the second time. This is one of the hardest parts of her journey. For a 10 year old your hair is such an identity. Lily’s dream is to be a country music artist. Due to the overwhelming support of the community during the 1st annual Lily’s Run, Lily, in partnership with Kingdom Kids wanted to continue Lily’s Run to grant wishes for other children also facing challenging circumstances. Lily is an inspiration to all to “pay it forward.”

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Kingdom Kids and founders Kevin Ford and Justin Hutchinson were featured in an article by Johns Creek’s CountyLine Magazine. An excerpt:

The Kingdom Kids tagline is, “It’s always the right time to do the right thing.” That is the message that the Fords and Hutchinsons want to share. When people praise them, all are quick to turn the attention away from them and onto the children and families they help. Kevin believes that it’s all about connections. “Can we meet two people who want to make a difference? And will those two people tell someone else? It keeps growing and growing as those people pay it forward. Justin and I feel blessed to be in the position to enrich the lives of kids who are going through hardships beyond comprehension.”

Read the entire article (PDF).

Kingdom Kids 2nd Annual Golf Tournament was another huge success! Thanks to all of our supporters and generous donations, three more major wishes will be fulfilled with the money raised for this event. Special thanks to the Upchurch Family for speaking about their recent wish trip to Disneyworld as well as all of our sponsors. Without our awesome sponsors, events like these wouldn’t be possible. Special thanks to:

Atlanta Fitness
Alessio’s Pizzeria
Muse Hair Salon
Hammer Sports Tickets
Healthy Tan
Johnsonville Brats
Cinco Vickery
Jumptastic
Extreme Color Graphics
Mitel
Sugarloaf Country Club
Windermere Country Club
Lanier Golf Club
811 Coolwraps
and countless silent auction donations!!
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We’ve had a great triumph and a great loss in the Kingdom Kids family over the holidays.

Please congratulate Lily Anderson (of Lily’s Run) for her recent triumph over her cancer over the Holidays. She’s has battled hard to beat this disease and we are very proud of her and excited at what the future holds in store for her. Kingdom Kids wishes all the best to Lily and her family!

Please also give our prayers and thoughts with the Patrick Family for their loss of Jessi over the holidays. Jessi was a beneficiary of a wish from Lily;s Run 2010 and we are terribly sad to have lost her on Thanksgiving. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers over the Holidays. The Kingdom Kids family is here for them.

Kingdom Kids has recently formed a new partnership in the community with the Gwinnett Medical Center Foundation. They will be helping the children and families served through their pediatric unit. Their first wish to be filled with them will be sending a child and his family to Disneyland in California within the coming months. “We felt this was a terrific opportunity to partner with a great local organization and increase our impact in the community,” says Kevin Ford, Co-Founder.

Lonesource, a company that helps businesses quickly and easily obtain the everyday products and supplies they rely on to do business, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month by initiating a company-wide charitable partnership with Kingdom Kids, a 501c3 nonprofit organization founded in January 2009 by two of Lonesource’s Atlanta sales managers, Kevin Ford and Justin Hutchinson.

Kingdom Kids’ mission is to improve the quality of life for children facing challenging circumstances such as cancer, blood disorders, neglect and abuse. Ford and Hutchinson work directly with local health care organizations to find out which children and families are in need and identify those needs and wishes.

“What better time than our 10th anniversary to kick off this program. After learning about this admirable organization established by two of our own employees, we felt it would make a significant impact to replicate Kingdom Kids’ mission within each Lonesource office,” said Lonesource CEO Bradley King. “We have always been a community-oriented company, and this initiative will reinforce our core values, ‘Customers First; Company Second; People Always.’”

Kingdom Kids has raised more than $140,000 in the last year and a half. As a 100 percent pass through organization, every dollar donated to Kingdom Kids goes directly to the cause for which it was intended. Lonesource was recently the Presenting Sponsor of Kingdom Kids’ First Annual Golf Tournament in Suwanee, Ga., which raised $12,361, enabling a family whose 9-year-old son is battling leukemia to spend a week at Walt Disney World.
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