As seen on NBC Nightly News

Kayla Abramowitz is the Founder and CKO (Chief Kid Officer) of Kayla Cares 4 Kids, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

She began the organization, at age 11, by collecting entertainment and educational items to donate to children’s hospitals in an effort to help children feel better. The now 22-year-old came up with the idea after extended hospital stays of her own, in addition to her 19-year-old brother Ethan’s numerous hospital trips, due to chronic illness. Kayla has Crohn’s Disease, Juvenile Arthritis and Eosinophilic Colitis. Ethan has Juvenile Arthritis and Eosinophilic Esophagitis.

At 11 years old, Kayla was too young to volunteer in children’s hospitals, and wondered, “What can I do to help?”

“I was looking through our DVDs and saw some ‘Thomas the Train’ movies. I thought, we don’t watch these anymore, so maybe we could give them to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. I asked my mom about it and she said that was a great idea!”

That’s how it all started in March 2013. She named the project “Kayla Cares 4 Kids,” enlisting the help of her family. Her initial goal was to collect 100 DVDs to donate to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, until a newspaper article about her in The Palm Beach Post brought in an overwhelming response of donations. She has now delivered items to every children’s hospital and Ronald McDonald House in the U.S., plus facilities in Quebec, Jamaica and South Africa!

With more than 50,000 items collected and donated to date, Kayla is working as hard as ever to “Helping Sick Kids Feel Better One Smile At A Time!”