Helping Texas Families
Taking Care of Families
Kids do not get to choose when something hard enters their lives.
Sometimes it is an illness. Sometimes it is surgery, a parent’s deployment, or a diagnosis that changes the rhythm of an entire family.
Over the years, Chisos has been glad to support a number of organizations that step into those moments. The work is different from one group to the next, but the idea behind it is remarkably consistent: make sure a child and their family do not have to carry the hard parts alone.
Here are a few of the organizations doing that work.
Wonders & Worries
Wonders & Worries began in Austin after two child life specialists recognized a need that often went unseen: helping children understand and cope when a parent becomes seriously ill or injured.
Today, the organization provides free professional support to children and teenagers, giving families better ways to talk honestly about what is happening and work through it together.
Chisos has been glad to support their work over the years. (Wonders & Worries)
HeartGift
Some children are born with heart conditions that can be repaired, but the specialized care they need may be far beyond their family’s reach.
HeartGift started in Austin in 2000 to help close that gap. The organization connects children born with congenital heart defects to lifesaving cardiac care, working with hospitals, medical teams, volunteers, and host families in Texas and around the world.
Chisos has contributed to that effort through our community giving. (HeartGift)
Austin Smiles
Since 1987, Austin Smiles has helped children born with cleft lip and palate receive surgical and follow-up care in Central Texas and Latin America.
That care can affect much more than appearance. Proper treatment can help with feeding, speech, breathing, hearing, and oral health as a child grows.
We have been glad to support an organization doing that work here in Austin and well beyond it. (Austin Smiles)
B.I.G. Love Cancer Care
B.I.G. Love Cancer Care grew out of one family’s experience with childhood cancer.
Founded in memory of Brooke Phillips, the organization helps pediatric cancer and blood-disorder patients and their families with the immediate practical needs that pile up during treatment. Today, its programs serve families across 11 Texas hospitals.
Chisos has supported B.I.G. Love as part of our broader giving to organizations caring for Texas children and their families. (B.I.G. Love Cancer Care)
The Comfort Crew for Military Kids
Military service asks something of the whole family.
The Comfort Crew helps children work through deployments, reunions, a parent returning with an injury, and the loss of a family member. Its programs are built specifically around the experiences military kids are asked to navigate while they are still growing up themselves.
Their work gives those children tools and support for circumstances most kids never have to face. (The Comfort Crew)
Make-A-Wish Central & South Texas
Make-A-Wish Central & South Texas serves children with critical illnesses across 40 counties.
The medical work belongs to doctors. Their work is to give a child something else to look forward to: an experience built around what that particular kid wants most.
Chisos has been fortunate to contribute to that work alongside the many families, volunteers, and supporters who make those experiences possible. (Make-A-Wish Central & South Texas)
Doing Our Part
Chisos has supported organizations like these through donated boots and other contributions over the years.
We are one small part of a much larger community of people doing the real work.
What matters is that somebody shows up.
For the child in the hospital. For the family trying to explain something difficult. For the kid missing a parent thousands of miles away.
There are plenty of ways to help. We are grateful for the Texans who have made a life out of finding one.
