Strides for Strength Mission is a charity organization that provides support to pediatric inpatients and their families through various campaigns with the main goal of empowering young patients.

We provide support to pediatric inpatients through two main campaigns...

Glow for Strength: This campaign provides skincare and selfcare items to teenage inpatients staying at childrens hospitals. We do this by putting together bags of skincare/selfcare items (hairbrushes, cleanser, hairties, etc) and distributing the bags hospital wide.

Capes for Strength: This campaign focuses on empowering younger children who are going into surgery. We do this through providing custom superhero capes to children who may feel nervous about their procedure. In the future, if funding allows, we may expand this campaign hospital wide to include all patients.

In addition to these campaigns, Strides for Strength Mission may also provide resources to parents of children staying in the PICU, stress relief items, and more.

To help send in our first round of donations and finish setting up our website, we need your help! Any donation, big or small, is greatly appreciated and will be used directly to support out mission. Thank you for helping us make an impact!

Donations will start of by going to Rainbow Babies and Childrens in Cleveland, Ohio.

Strides for Strength Mission is a tax exempt organization under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 501(c)(3). Donors can deduct contributions they make to Strides for Strength Mission under IRC Section 170.

The inspiration behind Strides for Strength Mission

Strides for Strength Mission was created with the goal of making hospital stays a little more tolerable and a little less terrible.

Skincare Smoothie: The Creation of Glow for Strength

At the age of 13, Emma was hospitalized due to complications caused by long COVID.

During her stay, she noticed that most of the gifts the hospital had given her were intended for young children.

Even though there were teenagers who stayed in children's hospitals, not many people seemed to remember this when sending in donations. This directly resulted in the creation of Glow for Strength. A campaign specifically focused on teenagers' needs and wants. Glow for Strength is meant to promote self-care, healing, and routine while also incorporating one of the biggest fads of the decade, skincare.

Skincare "get ready with me" videos have been widely posted on social media, making them something sought after by teenagers. While trendy, skincare can also help reduce stress and provide stability (in addition to having benefits to your skin).

Glow for Strength operates by putting together pre-made bags of skincare and distributing them across a hospital. This way, nurses, child life specialists, and other employees at the hospital can give them to teenagers by request or recomendation.

Two best friends: The Creation of Capes for Strength

In 2018, Emma was a new 3rd-grade student at her elementary school. That same year, she met her best friend, Finn.

Finn loved games, movies, music, and laughing. Emma loved all the same things, making this the perfect friendship. Emma and Finn enjoyed playing go fish during lunch, doing laps around the gym, and going to the bus together.

In 2019, Finn needed surgery on his hip. When Emma heard about Finn's surgery, she decided to make him a cape that he could bring with him to the hospital. She had hoped that it would make him less scared and more brave. The cape was fashioned out of a cheap superhero cape from Amazon and a whole bunch of stickers. Not the most durable, but it did the job.

Finn brought it with him to the hospital and still has it to this day, almost exactly 6 years later.

In 2025, Emma thought that more people could benefit from a similar idea with a few minor changes. The words on the capes were changed from "I am Brave" to "I am Strong". And of course, the capes are now more durable and not made with stickers. The capes will be distributed to many children having surgery in order to empower and encourge them.

The note on the bag that Finn recieved the cape in. The original cape The new and improved cape

Learn More

Help Strides for Strength Mission get started!

Team Members