Change4Children's was never a grand plan—just a simple idea that is growing bigger and more impactful by the day. It is the brainchild of three families, all of whom have had kids treated at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. When Jeff Kreshek's son Eli was there for back surgery, Jeff spent four nights with him. He was always at the cafeteria getting a cup of coffee or something to eat. At the end of each day, he would throw his change in his overnight bag. "I have always been a bit of a hoarder of change and always donated it to some sort of charity," says Jeff. "On the way home from our stay, it hit me—change for Children's!" Jeff immediately contacted two other dads he knew, Ryan Stromsborg and Andrew Apfelberg, whose children had been helped through various illnesses and who all shared the desire to give back to the hospital.
It was just mid-January of this year when the guys met and decided, "Let's do it." The campaign was launched in March with this simple idea: collect people's spare change and donate it to the hospital to buy items that would improve the quality of life for the young patients.
Jeff literally started by going to his local Smart & Final. There he bought two cases of Mason jars and some paint pens. His family decorated the jars and took them to an Encino Little League game, where his son was playing ball. Throughout the eight-week baseball season, they gave out some 170 jars, asking people to just fill them with change and send an email when the jar was full. They would come pick them up.
Since then, the project has grown to involve Bank of America. Now you can take jars there, and the money will automatically be put in the Change4Children's account. The hope is, after emptying the jar, donors take it home and fill it up again. Jeff points out how people get inundated with solicitations for charities by mail and how easy it is to throw those away. "Either I have no connection, I donated once but am not tied to that cause any longer or simply have other priorities at the time," he explains. "That said, I cannot think of a day when I do not do something that involves changes. You have to do something with the change." Now Jeff, Ryan and Andrew are hoping their project will give others an easy way to donate their change to make a difference.
The three families generously cover all the administrative costs of the project, so 100% of money collected goes to the hospital. When it comes time to decide what to buy for the children, Jeff says that's the easy part. "It's not terribly unlike Christmas. We get to play Santa Claus." The hospital has a wish list and the two parties discuss the various options. So far, the group has purchased electric cars the patients can drive to get from room to room. They've also donated to Project GO Kart, which supplies portable video games to the kids. As you can imagine, both items are big hits.
While Change4Children's is still in its early stages, the three men envision that one day it could become a national charity, given how transportable the premise is. "It can work anywhere, and the logistics are not terribly difficult," says Jeff. More importantly, he points out that the mission is very clear. "We're not curing disease, funding research or building a wing of a hospital (maybe one day). We are just taking a difficult time in a family's life, when they are often most vulnerable, and making it a little better."
Get a jar. Fill it up. Change a life. What could be better and easier than that?
Become involved with this worthy organization: www.Change4childrens.org
Connect of Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
Connect with Jeff: [email protected]
