Philanthropy Friday: Body-Image Foundation
Six years ago, David Wilson was blessed with a daughter. His beautiful, little girl was born with bilateral clubfeet, a foot deformity that required her to be casted and put in braces. Today, she is still in braces. Because of this, Dave quickly noticed that kids would make fun of her and discovered that having a child with a disability was very expensive.
Driven by this adversity, Dave wanted to help other kids and families that were going through the same medical, psychological, and financial hardships. His befalling turned into inspiration and the Children’s Body Image Foundation, a 100% volunteer nonprofit 501(c)3, was born.
The Children’s Body-Image Foundation believes that all children should feel good about themselves. They are advocates for every child, striving to improve children’s self-esteem and self-confidence by raising body image awareness, educating the public, and by promoting acceptance of all children within the community.
Never Say No To A Child In Need
The Children’s Body-Image Foundation assists children 17-years-old and younger no matter what the case. Some conditions they serve are: Body Dysmorphic Disorder, clubfeet, alopecia (hair loss), amputation, as well as burn victims, Chemotherapy patients, and abuse victims. Currently, they are assisting a little girl named Amber, who lives in Arizona on an Indian Reservation. Amber was born with a very painful disease where her teeth grow randomly throughout her gums. Her mother contacted Children’s Body-Image Foundation because Amber is suffering from low self-esteem due to the teasing she has been receiving from her peers. Plus, Amber’s family cannot afford the oral surgery and are in need of financial help.
Financial assistance is offered for allied medical healthcare services, professional counseling, braces/supportive devices (durable medical equipment/DME), physical therapy rehabilitation, prosthetics, and other related services. Healthy habits, which include nutrition and fitness education, are taught to the kids as key components in developing a lifetime of better health. Fun experiences are also planned for the kids to remind them that it’s ok to smile, play, and enjoy life carefree.
How Can You Help
On-line donation can be made HERE, and soon they will be launching a Be U Campaign where you will be able to select a specific cause to direct your donation.
Anyone is welcome to volunteer and join the foundation family. Volunteer opportunities are available at camps and events. Contact Courtney Hodges, Executive Director at CHodges@cbifNOW.org for more volunteer information and to schedule a background check.
The Columbus Body-Image Foundation holds fundraisers just about every month. This weekend you can find them at their booth at the Arnold Sports Festival. They will be the benefitting charity at the Saturday night After Classic Party at Martini Park hosted by Tapout, and Sunday they are the benefitting charity at the Urijah Faber seminar at D1 Sports Training Facility. In April they will be holding a media event at Sushi Rock, on May 8th they are hosting a dinner at Graystone Wine Cellars, and on July 24th there will be a Golf Outing at New Albany Links Golf Course. For more information on any of these events visit their on-line calendar of events.
For more information on The Children’s Body-Image Foundation visit childrensbodyimagefoundation.org.
Follow Children’s Body-Image Foundation on Twitter at @CBIF or become a Facebook fan HERE.
To read a touching behind the scenes story about The Children’s Body-Image Foundation visit InKindConnection.com.
Philanthropy Friday is a feature article by Michele Savoldi that will highlight a Columbus area non-profit organization every other week. For more nonprofit information follow Michele on Twitter at @cbusimpressions and @inkindconnect.
This entry was posted
on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Features.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Related Tags: columbus imPRessions • nonprofit • Philanthropy Friday • The Children's Body-Image Foundation • volunteering
March 5th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
interesting charity
March 7th, 2010 at 9:36 am
love this!