Our Story Starts Here,

Kate Kozak, Founder and Executive Director

In June 2023, my son Jackson lost his dad to cancer. Jackson was ten years old.

There are no words that fully capture what it's like to watch someone you love be taken apart by illness, the treatments, the hard days, the hope and the heartbreak all tangled together. And then, when it was over, I found myself in a fog. Not just grieving, but trying to figure out the most important question I'd ever faced: what does my son need right now, and how do I give it to him?

What carried us through was our community. People showed up, with food, with love, with financial help for Jackson's activities, with so many quiet and generous acts of kindness that I will never forget. That support didn't just help us survive those early months. It reminded me that Jackson still had a life to live, teammates who needed him at practice, coaches who noticed when he wasn't there.

It also made me think about every other family out there doing this without that net beneath them. When a parent dies, the first thing families cut is kids' activities. But those activities, the ski hill, the pool, the dance studio, the biking, those are exactly where grieving kids find routine, connection, and a reason to keep showing up. Amazing Kids Foundation exists to make sure the cost of a season pass or a registration fee is never the reason a child has to sit that out.

This foundation was born from loss, but it's built on love, the love of a community that showed me what's possible when people come together. I started Amazing Kids Foundation because I know what it feels like to carry that weight. And I want to help make it feel, even just a little, less heavy.

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And Jackson? He's now our Youth Co-ordinator. When I asked if he'd like to be involved, he was worried he wouldn't know how. I told him I don't always know how either, "Can you just be there for the kids at events?" He looked at me and said, "That I can do." And honestly, that's everything.