Family Involvement

We would love for you to become more involved with the Carolina For The Kids. With your help, we can continue to grow and reach even more people. We have many ways to get involved!

Come To The Marathon

There are two ways to get involved at our actual 12-hour marathon in March. The first is by speaking to our student dancers. More than 300 students will pledge to raise at least $150 and stand on their feet for 12 hours in support of the patients and families of UNC Children’s. During the marathon, we invite families, patients, and doctors to share their stories of CFTK and their experience in the hospital. We and the dancers would love to hear your story this year!

However, if you would like to experience the marathon, but would rather not speak in front of everyone, you are welcome to come and see what we’re all about. At any point during the 12 hours on March 28th you are welcome to stop by, and a member of the Hospital Committee will be at the door to welcome you. Activities, games and refreshments will be provided for you and your family. For more information about visiting the marathon, please contact the Carolina For The Kids Hospital and Family Relations Chair at [email protected].

Have Your Child Be a Kid Co-Captain

Kid Co-Captains or KCCs are children, who may be teens now, who are currently or have previously been hospitalized at UNC Children's and benefitted in some way from the work that CFTK does to support patients and families. KCCs can also be siblings of patients, since they are often impacted by having a sibling who is hospitalized. KCCs and their families represent CFTK at various events that we hold throughout the year by telling their stories and being a face for the cause. Events include football and basketball games, our 5K and Fun Run, and the Benefit Reception. Each child is paired with members of the Hospital and Family Relations Committee that will keep your family updated during the year, provide an extra system of support, connect you to CFTK. Each of the dancer teams at the marathon will have a kid co-captain, who serves as a tangible reminder to the dancers of why they raised their money and are standing for 12 hours. The kid co-captains also have a BLAST as they dance and interact with their team. They get to come to the marathon and cheer on their team, participate in team activities, inspire their teammates to keep dancing, and have fun! To get involved contact the Hospital and Family Relations Chair at [email protected].

Video Interviews

If you’d like to share your story with the Carolina For The Kids and the students, but you are uncomfortable speaking in front of so many people, we can set up a time to interview you about your experience instead. These can be played at the marathon to keep the dancers going during the 12 hours or in other videos throughout the year. If you are interested, please contact the Carolina For The Kids Hospital and Family Relations Chair at [email protected].

Share Your Testimonial With Other Families

If neither of these options are right for you, but you would still like to share your story, you can write your testimonial and send it to the Carolina For The Kids Hospital Chair, Alyssa Cappelletti instead. We will then post it on our website, use as inspiration in our meetings, and share as a For the Kids Story on our newsletters. To send in a testimonial or have more questions answered concerning the testimonials, please email the Carolina For The Kids Hospital and Family Relations Chair at [email protected].

Attend Our Events

Carolina For The Kids hosts many fundraising events for UNC Children’s throughout the year, from percentage nights at local restaurants to our annual Benefit Reception. If you are interested in attending any of these events, please visit the events section of our Web site. You can also sign up to receive our monthly newsletter via email by sending your email address to our Hospital and Family Relations Chair at [email protected].

Learn About Our Programs in the Hospital

Carolina For The Kids raises money throughout the year to benefit the patients and families of UNC Children’s, but we strive to personally connect with the families well. We would love to consider all families of the children’s hospital a part of the Carolina For The Kids family. We want to offer you as much support and help as we can, and we hope that through this section of our website, you can find resources that you need.

You may have seen volunteers from Carolina For The Kids at work in the hospital during your stay. If you ever run into us, please feel free to ask us any questions you may have. For more information now, click here to learn more about where our money goes. 

Bagel Brunch

Every other Tuesday come to the 6th floor from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m for Bagel Brunch. Our committee members serve a free, delicious, brunch from Brandwein's Bagels to any parents of patients in the NC Children's hospital and would love to chat about anything we could help you with during your stay.

Pediatric Playroom

Several times throughout the year we volunteer in the Pediatric Playroom. All ages are invited to participate in the activities we have planned, which often include games, arts and crafts. Each date is themed based on the month; past themes include carnival, science fair, and welcome to the jungle. You will often find Carolina For The Kids volunteers playing games and spending time with patients doing whichever activities in the playroom that they enjoy, whether that is reading books or playing the Wii!

Heel-O-Ween

This past school year we were able to bring back our first big event in the pediatric playroom: Heel-o-ween! The joy of getting to dress up and celebrate such a fun holiday when you are young should not be lost just because you are trying to get better, so we brought Halloween to the patients. Carolina For The Kids reached out to many Sports teams and Club teams at Carolina including Men's Lacrosse, club soccer, and more and they came to volunteer. We brought in crafts, games, and little toys to give out to the children since many are on strict diets and can't have sweet treats. The children got to come together and dress up in fun costumes with some really cool college students and celebrate the holiday!

Athletic Visits

The patients and families at UNC Children's go through some of the most unimaginable stress that a family can endure. Carolina For The Kids uses our fund donations and volunteers to preform many services for the patients and families at UNC Children's, but our scope goes beyond that of money as we strive to help ease the emotional stress on families and help children be children no matter how sick they may be. Part of this emotional ease we have been able to achieve is with creating a space for the UNC Football team to come in and hang out with the children during their season. Carolina For The Kids brought in players from the UNC Football team during their season on Friday's before a Saturday home game. In these visits the patients and families got to meet some pretty amazing team members who came with gifts and cheer while they played with the children for hours. This fun break is amazing to see along with some of the best moments when these players really get to connect with patients and their families in the hospital and they come back week after week to hang out with their new friends. The children get to meet some of their favorite players, people they want to be when they grow up, and sometimes the players even create some new fans in the children and their families. #goheels

For more information on anything related to the hospital, please contact our Hospital and Family Relations Chair at [email protected].