NC organization hosts birthday bash for kids with life-threatening conditions
Author: Anders J. Hare (WCNC)
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Kids living with life-threatening conditions have the chance to celebrate their birthday in the most thrilling way possible.
A Kid Again’s Central Carolinas Chapter hosted a birthday bash at Carowinds on Sunday, April 3 for kids living with life-threatening conditions and their families. Carowinds opened early at 8:30 a.m. to allow families with the organization to have as much fun as they want.
This event also marks the first anniversary of A Kid Again’s Central Carolinas Chapter, which currently serves more than 900 families throughout the region.
A Kid Again is a national organization with a mission to foster hope, happiness and healing for children with life-threatening health conditions and their families through cost-free, year-round adventures.
“As the Central Carolinas Chapter is marking our first anniversary in March 2022, we could think of no better way to celebrate than host a giant birthday party for all our enrolled kids and families,” Ed Paat, A Kid Again Central Carolinas Executive Director, said. “We appreciate the continued support of Carowinds and the Cedar Fair team for making this event possible.”
Paat said that the greater Charlotte area served as a great base for the Central Carolinas chapter. Many families travel to the area’s regional hospitals such as Levine’s Children’s Hospital in Charlotte for their children’s needs.
“You’re trying to provide that hope, happiness and healing, you’re trying to bring families together, multiple times a year as a way to step aside from all of the things all of the trauma that they’re experiencing in their regular lives,” he explained. “It’s an opportunity for them to have fun in an environment where they’re not the only child who maybe is in a wheelchair or on oxygen, or who has lost their hair. Now they’re around, you know, 2000 of their friends who look just like them.”
Paat said that the organization is working diligently to provide extraordinary experiences for the families it serves even after the birthday bash.
“Our goal is to continue to spread our mission, to make ourselves available to every family who has a child with a life-threatening condition,” he said. “We want to spread our mission as widely as possible so that they know about us, and they can reach out to us for assistance.”
More details about the A Kid Again and Carowinds Birthday Bash can be found here.