About Us
Our mission is to lift families who have fallen on hard times.
Kiss Your Kids Foundation strongly believes in promoting charitable giving and humanitarian work among the community. We currently contribute in advocating for families facing lengthy medical challenges, as well as support youth in their growth towards a positive future.
It's a cause that is near and dear to the Foundation founders, Jamie and Cale Henderson, as their first child was born with a congenital heart defect. She needed special care soon after birth, which had the Hendersons turning to the Ronald McDonald House of Iowa City while their daughter was treated at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Ronald McDonald House is a community dependent organization that provides a home-away-from-home at no cost for families with sick and injured children.
In an effort to give back to the organization, the Hendersons organized their first and now annual fundraising event, The Beard Shaving Extravaganza. As their charitable efforts continued to grow, as well as their vow to pay it forward, they soon after created their own not-for-profit, Kiss Your Kids Foundation.
Our impact
2023
$29,326
total raised so far
2022
$23,000
total raised
2021
$20,000
total raised
2019
$14,405
total raised
2018
$16,327
total raised
2016
$5,374
total raised
2015
$3,550
total raised
2013
$2,585
total raised
Our Story
On December 16, 2011 in Palo Alto, California Jamie Henderson is holding her and Cale’s daughter, Tatum, right before she received a pre-op echocardiogram. They had just landed in California, a young married couple leaving their lives behind them to put the survival of their only child in the hands of an unfamiliar surgery team two thousand miles from home over Christmas. The fear and the stress was absolutely crippling.
Luckily, they were able to upgrade their lodging from staying in an insect infested motel after receivong a call from Ronald McDonald House. What the RMHC provided the Hendersons with was incredible — a two room suite with a kitchenette, access to the shuttle that could take them back and forth to the hospital and a hot meal after the longest of days.
After leaving the RMHC a month later to come home, they were not in a financial position to donate back. That’s how the Beard Extravaganza was born. The Hendersons wanted to pay back an organization that had sheltered them several times and once for over a month at Christmas. That’s how this happened.
TEN years later the Kiss Your Kids Foudnation has donated over ONE HUNDRED THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS. Kiss Your Kids Foundation continues to grow their efforts to support the community and families facing life’s challenges.