Philanthropy Friday: Road of Life

Rob Emrich has been personally touched by cancer. At seven years of age he lost his two-year-old sister, Keren to neuroblastoma, a pediatric cancer of the nervous system. While in college cancer struck home again taking the life of his cousin and giving his mother a cancer scare. Wanting to make a real difference, Rob made it his personal quest to try and fight this disease.

Rob soon discovered that there was very little work being done in the field of cancer prevention for children. So in 2002, Rob founded The Keren Emrich Foundation in memory of his younger sister, Keren. Dedicated to this mission Rob sold his car and stocks to fund the fledgling organization, Road to Life – Cancer Prevention for Kids.

Road of Life is a community of educators, health professionals, donors, and families all working together to raise a healthy generation of kids. Everyone benefits from healthier kids. Healthier kids become healthier adults who are less likely to be affected by a disease of excess, like obesity or diabetes or certain types of cancer.

Healthy Programs

Road of Life’s main offering is a series of health promotion curricula for children K-12 in a variety of educational settings. Their programs teach healthy eating, physical activity, tobacco use reduction and other important health information. The curricula are all in the “train-the-trainer” model. That means Road of Life teaches an educator how to use the curriculum, which then will teach it to a child. It can be downloaded for free HERE.

Their programs are unique because they integrate healthy behaviors into everyday lessons. Classroom lessons blend prevention education into required state standards like Math, Science and Reading. Programs also enable teachers to satisfy their required curriculum and keep their kids healthy and active.

To date, Road of Life has distributed over $70M dollars of curriculum to over 250,000 children throughout the world.

One Million Children

Road of Life is in the middle of their five-year campaign. Their goal is to empower 1 million children to grow up healthy and happy. To help them achieve their goal, Road of Life is asking Columbus Underground readers to spread the word by telling a teacher, after school provider, parent, or camp counselor about their free program.

Accepting Donations For The Program

Road of Life is a self-sustaining not-for-profit organization. The revenues generated pay for the free online downloads and curriculum development. People can sponsor the classroom of a teacher who would like a printed curriculum by donating online.

Corporate sponsorships are also available if interested in sponsoring more than one classroom. Email office@roadoflife.org for more information.

For more information on the Road of Life visit their website at www.RoadOfLife.org. Become a Facebook fan or following them on Twitter at @road_of_life.

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.