8 weeks ago today, we lost the love of our lives to a disease we thought she had beaten. 8 weeks ago today, I crawled in bed with her and whispered a promise to her that we would never let her death be in vain. I promised we would do anything we could to find a way to help spread awareness…to help raise funds…to help make a difference to other kids with cancer and hopefully one day, to find a cure. In her beautiful name. Kate Olivia.
When we started our journey, we were Kate’s Krew & Prayers for Kate. A group of family & friends rallying around us for support and love while we battled the beast with our darling girl. But then, when she left us, we knew it would need to be different.
The name Kate’s Cause was born from her family. We knew we wanted to do more than “stomp out leukemia” as was the mission of Kate’s Krew, but with expanding our horizons and setting our goals to ALL children, we more than a Krew. We now had a CAUSE. Knowing the logo would have a dinosaur in it, the tag line was easy.
The logo was imagined by her Daddy with the vision explained via email by me to the kind-hearted, talented and lovely Jessica Waters Frye, who reached into her heart and channeled our angel and created something more perfect than we could have ever imagined. She was in tune with the vision from the very first moment.
Those who know Kate remember her love for dinosaurs and the ever-present hair bows she wore so proudly. She wore them the minute her hair was long enough to do so as a baby, and couldn’t WAIT to wear them again after losing her hair to chemo. Many of her classmates even commented on Kate being “so pretty with her hair bows.” We wanted to keep the dinosaur somewhat vague (after all, if you asked Kate who her favorite was, she would struggle with naming just one.) She would have called this a “made-up-a-saurus,” as it has characteristics of many. The stars represent Kate being the sun, moon and all our stars shining as the brightest in heaven now. The sweet little girl full of joy sliding down the dino’s tail with glee is none other than our beautiful Kate. Fully free and blissfully happy. The way we will always think of her.
Welcome to Kate’s Cause. Until Childhood Cancer is Extinct.
This is just the beginning.