Today we’d like to introduce you to Katelynn Ducharme.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
We lost our three-year-old daughter Jocelyn to Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumor (ATRT) on September 28th, 2021.
During her 2.5-year battle with brain cancer, we vowed to raise awareness and funding for childhood cancer, as she captivated the world with her bright smile and positivity. While battling, Jocelyn discovered a love for painting and art, we used this love for art to support our mission for childhood cancer. We auctioned off and sold roughly 20 paintings of hers, raising over $3,500 for childhood cancer research, adding to the $100,000 total we were able to raise during her fight for ATRT research.
After her passing, we knew we couldn’t give up our dream of finding a cure/raising awareness for the childhood cancer community. Our dream for Jocelyn was always finding a cure for her cancer, after she passed we vowed to continue fighting for the outcome we so badly wished our daughter had. In May 2022, my husband Joshua Ducharme and I unofficially launched Jocelyn’s Legacy Foundation, by August we became an official 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization. Our mission focuses on raising awareness and bringing smiles to the Childhood Cancer Community, through the delivery of personalized art kits.
Since May we’ve been able to deliver over 150 art kits to children battling cancer all over the United States. All kits are completely personalized and tailored to their needs, wants, and interests. In December 2022, we achieved our first large hospital art kit drop, 100 art kits delivered to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City in honor/memory of Jocelyn for the holiday season. We aim to make this a yearly drop in her honor.
Looking forward we aim to solely focus on our mission. We aim to raise enough funds through our organization to fund research efforts for new and innovative treatments for ATRT cancer. We aim to send art kits to every state in the country and bring smiles to those who need them the most until our services are no longer needed.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We have been incredibly lucky to have such an amazing support system through social media. Our social media family has helped make this journey a fairly smooth one so far. We have been flooded with support, love, and assistance when launching our program.
Our line of work takes a lot out of you mentally at times. With each art kit delivered, it means one more child battling cancer. One more family going through the pain we once had. Being a parent of those lost to cancer makes this line of work a difficult one, but focusing on bringing light to these families is what helps us push harder each day.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We are most proud of our mission. As long as children are being diagnosed with cancer our services will continue.
Each art kit delivered contains crayons, markers, coloring books, activity books, canvas, paints, stickers, and play-doh. All items aim to help bring smiles to the children during their treatments or time spent at the hospital. When our daughter was battling receiving any form of care package helped keep her spirits up during the toughest times. That’s what we aim to have our art kits do.
Outside of running the nonprofit I spend my days working as an Account Manager within the digital advertising field, as well as spreading awareness and knowledge for ATRT cancer on Instagram and Tiktok. My husband the co-founder of Jocelyn’s Legacy Foundation spends his days working for the United States Air Force.
I’m currently attending Weber State University aiming to receive a bachelor’s in Health Administration. I aim to use my degree to become a patient advocate at a children’s hospital.
Outside of all our efforts and work, we spend most of our time as a family, spending time and raising our 3-year-old twins.
We aim in the future to host fun runs, 5k’s, and art shows as fundraisers to help fund our program and bring money into discovering more effective treatments for ATRT.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Social media has been our saving grace when it comes to networking. We’ve been able to connect with other nonprofits working within the Childhood Cancer field, and exchange fundraising ideas while providing support to each other. We live in a world now where social media can really be used as a great resource to share your mission, fundraise, and find other children to help.
Through social media, we were able to raise over $9,000 within our first year of becoming a Nonprofit Organization.
Pricing:
- $50 to sponsor a full art kit.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jocelynslegacy.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jocelynslegacy/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jocelynslegacy
