How a College Freshman's Inspiration Started a $4 Million Charitable Foundation with Jeff Baxter

[00:00:00] John Boruk: And welcome into Raising a Champion. I'm your host, John Boruk. With that, every week we try to do a little bit something on this particular show. Back in October, we had Scott Thorpe, who was part of the Ed Snyder Youth and Education, and he discussed the importance of what that what that charity does in terms of bringing youth hockey to underprivileged communities. And it is such a good experience. And as part of this podcast, we want to do stuff like that, community involvement, charities people just bring a goodwill, raising money, doing good things for families. And it's always a good direction to go.

And so that part of what we're gonna do today is get into the Headstrong Foundation. It's a fantastic charity that's been around, believe it or not, for 15 years. It's based here in the Philadelphia community. And with me today is Jeff Baxter. He is the Vice President of Community Engagement.

Jeff, welcome to the show. How are you?

[00:00:58] Jeff Baxter: Good. Thank you [00:01:00] so much for having me here. Yeah. I got the title right? 

[00:01:02] John Boruk: Yes. Okay. Community engagement. You're also director of fundraising. Before we get into Headstrong, tell us a little bit about yourselves, because you have a history in fundraising and non-profit organizations.

[00:01:15] Jeff Baxter: Yes. Varied. I have a very varied background. I, graduated from St. Joe's University after being a division one lacrosse player there. Didn't know what I really wanted to do for certain reasons, which we can get into in a little bit. But ended up coaching lacrosse in England for a year after graduating from St.Joe's. 

And while I was there, I was like, I wanna work in sports. This is what I want to do. And. I got myself into grad school while in England, and when I came home, I started going to Newman University in Aston where I got a master's degree in sports management and worked in that world for a bit of time, running some tournaments and leagues and camps and that type of sports management.

And, while I was [00:02:00] doing that work, I always had this being, I went to a Jesuit university. I always had this like altruistic kind of desire to work helping people, right? Whether it was, when you're a coach you're helping people grow, you're helping people learn a sport get better at what they're doing.

But I had the opportunity to work for Special Olympics, and so I worked for Special Olympics, Pennsylvania in a sports management role. Where I learned a lot I basically became an event planner. I learned how to be able to manage these large special Olympic events with thousands of athletes at a college playing six different sports.

And so it was exciting. Yet it was also draining cuz there was a lot of stress involved. . But it got me into working for charities and I've been lucky enough to work for five different charities. Some large, some small special Olympics being one of the, if not the largest amateur sports organization in the world.

And then working for I had the opportunity to work for Alex's Lemonade stand in Philadelphia, where [00:03:00] I really started to learn a lot about fundraising and engaging people in a mission. To help towards something, for Alex's it was research, trying to find a cure for pediatric cancer.

[00:03:11] John Boruk: Yeah. So having worked at special Olympics here in the Philadelphia area, you probably knew the woman I got to know her who was in charge of community relation. I don't think she's there now. But really good ice hockey. 

[00:03:25] Jeff Baxter: It might have been probably, it was probably after me, because that was probably early two thousands for me.

 [00:03:30] John Boruk: But I would go and I would help out and contribute to whatever areas that she needed. But I got to see just how stressful that is because a lot of that is so dependent. On, you've gotta be in charge. You I really can't. There's not too many jobs that require so much multitasking.

Yeah. As making this and making sure this is in place and that's working. Do we have volunteers over there? You're literally juggling eight [00:04:00] balls at one time.  

[00:04:00] Jeff Baxter: Yeah. You're essentially running six different tournaments at once, and then you have. House, transport, entertain and feed the athletes and the coaches for a two day period with the help of college students because they're your volunteer base.

I learned a lot. I can't deny it. I learned how to deal with that kind of stress which, you get better at doing these events. And eventually, like now people are like, wow, you're so calm. It's like that old adage with the duck, under the surface of the water paddling crazy.

And you never really wanna show how hard you're really paddling under the water.  

[00:04:33] John Boruk: You mean they don't teach you all of this when you go through sports management courses at the university?  

[00:04:37] Jeff Baxter: No. You learn it all on the job. 

[00:04:40] John Boruk: Yeah. And look, people who, especially athletes who've had successful careers.

They then transition from high school to college and they want to keep it going. Get into sports management. Is it what you expected? What advice would you give some of those kids that are going through who may want to do, maybe it's [00:05:00] something along the lines that what you're doing because they think that this younger generation is very much into nonprofit work and giving back. 

[00:05:08] Jeff Baxter: Yeah, I mean my wife and I both we met in grad school. We were both college coaches and go both going towards like a similar goal. My wife was a field hockey lacrosse coach and I was a lacrosse coach and that's what drew us together. But we both have gone through a really winding road of career in sports and Robin, my wife, went from a college coach to running tournaments, to working in the hotel industry, to now working in a, with a technology that's helping the sports industry.

Me, what I would tell a student that wants to get into that world, it's not always about pro sports. I went into it trying to be an athletic director. I had such a great experience playing college sports at St. Joe's that I was like, I want to do this What those coaches and [00:06:00] administrators did for me while I was in college made such a great experience.

But I find today, like when I go back to teach, like when I go to speak or something at my alma mater both St. Joe's and Newman. The students think like pro sports. Pro sports. There's so many opportunities in other areas of sports management, be it a charity running golf outings, running five keys.

Or maybe working at a CVB, bringing economic impact to where you live and bringing tournaments and teams to come play. And you think about the World Cup, like what that's gonna bring. The Philadelphia economically is gonna be crazy, but just. Youth sports alone is a billion dollar industry, and there's so many ancillary businesses that are popping up to support that industry that.

Require somebody that has like a knowledge of sport, like my wife, Ramo, would sell room blocks to the tournaments. [00:07:00] And in order for that team to feel good that all their parents and kids have hotels, they would, partner with this company that would get them a room block for, hundreds of athletes coming to play over a weekend, whether it be a volleyball tournament, a soccer tournament, or a lacrosse tournament.

You know what I always tell a student, cause we get a lot of interns and I always say, I wanted to, I actually tried getting into pro sports. I worked at the Eagles Stadium for two years. I worked for the Philadelphia Soul when they were in their infancy as an intern. It just, The sport management that I like was out to, to, like I said, I had such a great experience like being coached and having that athletic opportunity offered to me.

And that's like why I went to work for Special Olympics. It was like I'm giving an opportunity to a special needs athlete to play this sport, right? So they could get one healthy two. Work with others, on and [00:08:00] meet new people and just bring quality life, right? And it was cool to see that other lens of sport.

I came from a division one kind of very competitive environment to organizing BK tournaments, and bowling events. Yeah. Which I had never played before, so I had to teach myself. Yeah. Learn the rules. Yeah. I had to learn how to score bowling events and tennis matches and everything.

[00:08:24] John Boruk: But it look, and it could be every student's dream and like you even mentioned that yours they wanna work at the professional sports level, but even. in my prior line of work in broadcasting, you're not gonna start off, working in Philadelphia necessarily, you gotta start small.

. And if you're gonna work for a Philadelphia Eagles or 76ers, or in New York for the Knicks, Yankees whatever the team, the franchise, they want to know that they may throw at you, Hey, can you do this job? Can you do this duty? The professional sports level is not gonna be a training ground.

You gotta get started somewhere and you gotta get some work and some more [00:09:00] work experience. So that's why it's good to be an internship and go get in there, learn 

[00:09:05] Jeff Baxter: Do as many of them as you can do. Absolutely. And the volunteer there's so many opportunities. Literally this afternoon, the guy that I work with on our five messaged me, he times our five keys and helps us manage our events. He's I really could use some help at events. What do you guys use interns? I'm like, yeah, we wouldn't be able to do some of the things we do if we didn't have some Absolutely. Support there. Yeah. 

[00:09:29] John Boruk: It may be grunt work, but even in broadcasting you need interns help log games and long stuff, but yeah they're very much needed.I know they don't feel important. 

[00:09:40] Jeff Baxter: When, no, believe it or not, we've hired our - we've hired three of our interns at Headstrong. Over the last four years we've hired three full-time staff members that were interns, sports interns. Yeah. Okay. 

[00:09:50] John Boruk: Are you currently looking right now?

[00:09:51] Jeff Baxter: We always are use in need of interns. I know for the summer we just got our spring internships going, but the summer, if there's people out there that. And,[00:10:00] information on our internships, they could always contact jeff@headstrong.org. 

[00:10:05] John Boruk: Okay. All right, with that, let's get into the Headstrong Foundation.

Like I mentioned, off the top of the episode 15 years, you've been around 11 full-time employees and you're looking to raise. In 2023, close to 4 million. So this is a major endeavor. This is a big time non-profit charitable organization that you have here. In fact, I w I did.

Every time I look into this, I always want to see where they are. And you got a 94% when it comes to the accountability. So this is something. People are wondering as legit. I can tell you, I did the research. It's one of the highly accredited foundations that's out there, so that's great.

But tell me, how it all started, because it all and really it started back with a former lacrosse player who developed cancer.

[00:10:52] Jeff Baxter: Yes. Nick Colleulori was from outside of Philadelphia. He was a freshman at the [00:11:00] time. He went to Hofstra University. Nick was the type of kid. Who was like an all-American boy, played three sports in high school. He won multiple state championships in lacrosse at Ridley High School. And he was offered the opportunity to play lacrosse at Hof Street University. and first year out you got like any freshman Nick wanted to play. He didn't wanna settle for sitting on the bench.

And he, by the end of the season he was getting a lot of time on a highly ranked team at Hofstra at the time. And his little brother, Michael who played Everly High School Was targeted to come the next year to play with him. And that was their dream, was to play look college across together.

When they were like in third grade, they told their parents, is that game we're playing across the street in the park. We're gonna go to college and play together. And that was their dream. And Nick got diagnosed going into a sophomore year, unfortunately couldn't play that year when Michael was a freshman.[00:12:00] 

You had to move back home to Philadelphia to treat his cancer at University of Penn, originally at chop. He aged outta CHOP and went to Penn after a few months. And while in treatment Nick was a 19 year old kid, eyes wide open. He was seeing the things that happened to his family financially, emotionally and he was also seeing the things that were happening to others on the ho in the hallway at the hospital, the other patients that he was meeting.

And it bothered him and he was like, man I, I originally was, going to school to be a teacher and a coach one day he's. This is me. I gotta do something about this. I want to use my platform as a student athlete, as this lacrosse player. And I want to start something that they will back me on and maybe we can start like a little initiative here to help raise funds for these families, whether it's traveling or just being there for them, being a good teammate.

Because if you ever ask any of Nick. [00:13:00] Friends or teammates from the past, they always tell you what like the consummate teammate was like he was the first guy that would be. Helping you up off the ground if you got knocked down or was always there first. Teammates. And 

[00:13:12] John Boruk: The fact that he was here, he's diagnosed with B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, correct?

 [00:13:18] Jeff Baxter: An aggressive form of it as well. 

[00:13:20] John Boruk: A, an aggressive form. Of the non-Hodgkin, obviously Mario Lemieux comes up, but I don't know if his was the aggressive type, but here he is. He, he's diagnosed with the non-Hodgkin's lymphona , he's probably going through treatments. It's interrupting.

He's in the prime of a lacrosse career and yet he's thinking throughout this whole dilemma and this life and career threatening sickness that he's had of giving back of creating something other families don't go through what his family, that says a lot right there.

[00:13:51] Jeff Baxter: Yeah, I mean the, typical Delaware County PA fundraisers, a beef and beer, and one of the [00:14:00] biggest first fundraisers that Nick had was a beef and beer outside of Swathmore.

And they raised 60 or $70,000 with this beef and beer. And, Nick, This is gonna be great for, our, needs right now. But I also want to help the people at the hospital and he ended up turning around buying the couch beds that every hospital room has for their loved ones.

Cause I'm sick of seeing my mom sitting in an uncomfortable chair and I wanna make a change. I wanna buy a brand new chairs. But the money that I just raised to somewhat help his own, cause he was thinking of others first and. and purchase all those chairs, which was like, set the tone for the future of what this would become later on in, which he probably didn't even fathom what it has become now.

Like you said he was thinking of others. He was just like the consummate teammate, that we always preach, like at headstrong, we follow the lead. And Nick [00:15:00] is, it's the we over the me, and yeah. We meet these families all the time with the foundation and they're so vulnerable.

Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:15:07] John Boruk: So what year was he diagnosed? 

[00:15:10] Jeff Baxter: 2005, 2006 

[00:15:12] John Boruk: area. So 2005. He's diagnosed. He has to leave school, undergoes chemotherapy, radiation. Stem cell transplant other experimental treatments, 

[00:15:24] Jeff Baxter: correct? Yeah. You actually had to move to Bethesda, Maryland at one point. That they went the NIH Yeah.

To try and get an experimental treatment. Everything they threw at his cancer, just like they, they just couldn't. I'm sure like nowadays with CART they might have been able to, if that would have it, had it existed at that point would've been helpful. , but he only lasted 14 months. And, that's how fast, 

[00:15:48] John Boruk: That's how much it really got to him.

[00:15:50] Jeff Baxter: But he battled like a, you ask his family and the doctors said, they really only gave him four to five months to live. And he made it to 14. Yeah. And Pretty [00:16:00] much going in the Hospice, like telling his mom, listen, I started this thing where we're raising money for families.

I I need you to keep it going. And I need you to promise me that you're gonna keep this going and make my life like meaningful and worthwhile. Yeah. This is his legacy. And so his mom, promised him and to this day, Cheryl is our president. And since inception, what started with his teammates and others around the lacrosse community wearing lime green laces in their shoes to support the effort.

We've raised over 26 million in those 15 years. Something that started in a hospital room and at a kitchen table at their house. Yeah. As snowballed into what we're doing. Current state. 

[00:16:44] John Boruk: So as you mentioned at really the heart of the Headstrong Foundation is that you provide financial, residential, and emotional support to families that are affected by cancer.

Correct. And they come to the Philadelphia area. I think they have to live [00:17:00] outwards of 50 or more miles from the area. 

[00:17:02] Jeff Baxter: Yeah. We have we do help people on a national basis. If there's going to. With the, we have a twofold awareness platform. We have the local, greater Philadelphia region where we're known, and then lacrosse has allowed us to have this like national footprint where there's people all over the country that know about Headstrong.

So if there's somebody that fundraises for us in let's say Colorado, we'll find somebody in Colorado to write a grant to in that community. That community that was doing the fundraising feels like it's coming full circle back to their community. Okay. Which is a pretty cool way to handle it.

And then we have a Nick's house, which is in Philadelphia, Swathmore in the middle of Swathmore borough. And that is a house that can house up to six families coming to Philadelphia outside of that 50 mile range. Cuz you think about it. You could be in, let's say Allentown, and have to [00:18:00] come into the city every day for a period of time and let's say three or four months.

Or you could be from Chicago and the only doctor in the United States that likes, can work on a certain cancer, could be in Philadelphia. We had a family from Dallas, Texas. Their daughter had a rare eye cancer and the only doctor in this, in the country that was really the top doc was at chop.

So of course they're gonna make. A chance, they're gonna turn over every stone they can to try and save their loved one's life. Absolutely. 

[00:18:30] John Boruk: But the cost that you incur is astronomical. 

[00:18:33] Jeff Baxter: Just 30 grand, 40 grand for just a, that, that's two, three month period 

[00:18:38] John Boruk: hotels. That's just to stay here.

Yeah. That's just the support and all the accommodations just to stay. That's, we're not even getting into the medical side of things. That you hope the majority of that is all covered by medical insurance. 

[00:18:50] Jeff Baxter: But you don't really truly understand your medical coverage until you actually need it.

Right. , I could, I'll be the first one to tell you, if, my wife recently heard her [00:19:00] elbow and we were like, worried, we're like, how much is this gonna get covered? You'd think you knew, like you could open up your book and, your medical coverage would be outlined for every little detailed thing, but you don't really know until you're in it.

Cuz they could say, oh, you need to take this certain medication. Oh. But it's not covered by insurance. And that medication is gonna allow you to get chemotherapy. Like it, the it could be like triggering, helping fix a problem with, that you're getting during chemo and the medication allows you to like actually not be, throwing up all the time or being able to actually function while getting that, that treatment.

Like we, we had a family locally from West Chester. Her daughter was 19, and she had to take this specific medication and they said that the medication was like $2,700 a shot. And they wouldn't give it to her unless like they knew the family could like, cover the cost, and it's like the dad was like, I didn't know whether to like laugh or [00:20:00] cry. Yeah. He is it is like I have to do this. It's not oh, your daughter Dean's braces. 

[00:20:06] John Boruk: Yeah, you're gonna, you'll have crooked teeth. No, this is just, this is for survival. And there is no do we want, do this save money?

No, you're gonna pay for it. 

[00:20:14] Jeff Baxter: You're gonna do everything for your child. So that's kinda like we, we seem to fit, over the 15 years that the foundation has grown and has, originally it was like helping towards blood cancer cuz Nick was a, had a blood cancer. But we've now grown into Service over sinus science organization where we're not trying to find a cure.

There's bigger organizations that have a better footprint to hit that harder than we would. We know our niche is like helping families directly with direct service, whether it's helping them pay their mortgage with a grant or allowing to stay at home instead of. Working through the chemotherapy or being able to travel to Philadelphia and when that's like the only option instead of just packing it in and saying, [00:21:00] okay, I'm just gonna stay here where they don't have the treatment I need, I'm gonna at least turn over every rock. Because that's what they did as a family. 

[00:21:08] John Boruk: How much of Nick's house and that element of it did you look, because it sounds very similar to the Ronald McDonald House.

[00:21:16] Jeff Baxter: Similar but different now. Ronald McDonald House is any ailment or disease for pediatric families, nick's house is strictly cancer.The patient actually stays at the house with a caregiver. Now the patient's not bedridden. They're traveling in every day to the hospital getting chemotherapy, or they're maybe they got a a bone marrow transplant and they were deemed that you have to stay in at least a hundred miles from the hospital in case of their bed reaction to the procedure.

We are there to like support that situation now. Ronald McDonald House Exactly. Needed, it's definitely a little different than Nick's house. It's more of a, [00:22:00] it's like a bed and breakfast, almost like it's a homey feel. It's a beautiful old swap. Yeah. 

[00:22:06] John Boruk: I've volunteered at least at the Ronald McDonald House here, and it's more of, I guess more of a hotel type structure. You have a big dining area, everybody comes and so yeah we've all and then you have families that volunteer and bring food and meals and then serve buffet styles, yeah, no it does. 

[00:22:21] Jeff Baxter: Yeah. Yeah. And with us is like the patience there. All their dietary needs are like different and we have a big professional kitchen that their family, their caregiver can manage the meals. And we have. Some items that get donated on a weekly basis to the house, but we don't have people coming in and making meals and stuff, and it's just far enough outside the city.

It's 20 minutes outside of city, right by the, it's li probably a one block walk to the train station that takes you right to Penn. So you could either drive or take the train. But a lot of these folks aren't from an inner city. Urban area. So [00:23:00] like throwing them into that urban area added more stress.

And so being in this idyllic place in Swarthmore, it's like very calm and it's a respite where they're getting out of that bubble of stress of being in the city. And you think down by like Penn and Franklin Field and. And the hospitals it's crazy down there like just trying to find parking and traffic and the Schyukill Expressway.

So it's like we're trying to provide something where they can come and just relax. And then they're also there with five other families going through a very similar situation. The caregivers have other caregivers to talk to. The patients have other patients to talk to. You think if you're staying in a hotel, by yourself, with your wife.

Let's say your child's sick and you're there with your wife, you're not talking to any other people. You're not eating cuz you're in a hotel room. You can't do your laundry easily. There's all these like stressors and so we're, that's the one thing we try to take away, like the unnecessary.

Stressors. We want [00:24:00] people to like really concentrate on getting better. 

[00:24:04] John Boruk: So being a teammate how do the families come to you? Does the hospitals and the medical facilities recommend you guys to these families? How does that work?   

[00:24:14] Jeff Baxter: So we have a patient service coordinator who's actually a cancer survivor, and Sarah is the person that works with the social workers at the hospital.

And so they identify, they obviously are aware of our service. They identify the families that are in need, and then they simply apply on this one page application telling us that what their situation is and if there's an opening, they can move in that day. And we don't have any time constraints.

Like we've had families stay up to nine months with, and the beautiful part about it is let's say they're from Lewes, Delaware, cuz I know we've had two families from, Yeah. From lower Delaware. Yeah. And that's, so it's for people who don't know, it's about two hours. Yeah, that's it from the metro area.

And you're from that area, but let's say you're, we, the weekend you don't [00:25:00] treatment, the families can like, go back to Delaware. , go home, see their family members, and we'll still save the spot. We're not gonna like backfill that spot. Like they're, they have that room until they're done their treatment in Philadelphia, which is really helpful for the families.

They're not like if I leave the house, am I gonna lose my spot? No. You go home for a family birthday or a holiday. We, Dr. Like recently with Christmas we had Christmas lights and tree, and we actually had a caroling event at one point. So they felt like the community support. Yeah.

And they weren't in this like dark house. It was like probably the prettiest house in Swarthmore. But we try our best to make it a really, we're building community, right? And so we involved the college across the. For Halloween, the, some of the athletic teams hand out candy on the porch and folks come and sing Christmas carols and,[00:26:00] we're really trying to be a part of that community.

So they know why the house is there and vice versa. And the families feel comfortable walking in the town and feeling like they're a Swarthmore in for the debt Yeah. For the months that they're there. 

[00:26:13] John Boruk: So the numbers are pretty impressive when it comes to Nick's house. And you said, You have , you're able to provide accommodations for as many as eight families, or was it, 

[00:26:22] Jeff Baxter: It's six. And so that six fluctuates. Know sometimes there's five families, sometimes there's three, sometimes there's two. Sometimes it goes way up to all six rooms are filled. Even during c o v we, we never shut down. We actually had one family from San Diego staying there with their child going to P going to CHOP.

Because we just wanted to keep it going, but we wanted to keep it safe at the same time. Yeah. And that child, like if they didn't have that opportunity to come the come to Philly, they might not have, gotten to the right. Doctor and the right treatment. And then eventually we opened back up [00:27:00] and then we had two families, cause it's a three floors house.

So we actually separated the families by floor or, but we weren't gonna give up on, on the mission even though we were challenged seriously with the situation. We just, pivoted and made it work. Yeah. 

[00:27:15] John Boruk: Since that time, since the house has opened up you have provided over 2,500 complimentary nights to families.

I guess if you wanna do the math when you're looking at a place, if you had if families had to pay $200 to stay at a hotel, that's essentially saving families half a million dollars right there. Which is great. It's terrific. 

[00:27:35] Jeff Baxter: And our goal in the, we always have these lofty goals, but our goal is to have a Nick's house in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Boston.

And we're actually targeted to open up a Boston Nick's house in the next 12 to 18 months. Similar but different. Okay. Cause obviously the cities are different and the house makeups are different. We just. [00:28:00] We lucked out on the house in swath. We did a lot of work on it. But the houses in Boston, near the hospital aren't the same style house.

Yeah. They're skinnier, they're taller. Their stairways are skinny. It's like we have to find the right place. It took two years to find the next house in Swarthmore. The right one. And and people were like why'd you buy like an old 1890 house and redo it?

I was like, cuz it literally isn't the perfect place. Place. Yeah. And it's perfect. We could have bought a brand. Apartment complex and redid it or something, but it wouldn't have had the same feel, yeah. 

[00:28:34] John Boruk: But for people listening, we're with Jeff Baxter. He is the Vice President of Community Engagement for the Headstrong Foundation.

That does tremendous work for families who have a family member suffering from cancer and gives them. A place to stay offers any financial help, emotional support, whatever they may need. One of the things and it really is, it's, it the, it's based [00:29:00] on Nick's love and passion for the sport of lacrosse.

So one of the things that you do provide are these comfort kits, and you mention all the things with lacrosse. And I believe I came across this when I was doing a lacrosse story in New Jersey. I had no idea because I remember seeing these green shoelaces and I and these like bright lime green. I'm like, what's that all about?

And I think that is when I was introduced to this. , this may have been 10 years ago. But you provide these little comfort kits. Talk about what's in those kits and who you give them to, and really the purpose behind them. Yeah. 

[00:29:33] Jeff Baxter: So it's part of, yeah. We have several pillars of service here at Headstrong.

We have, the Nick's house initiative. We have comfort kits, which are handed out at the hospital, or somebody can order one for a loved one, send them, could be sent across the country. We're actually, last year we did 4,000 of them. And we literally pack these bags or boxes full of stuff that like patients would really [00:30:00] need and feel appreciative of, is a nice blanket.

There's hats, socks. There's a journal, there's toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, tissues anything that you get it in the hospital, but it's like the off brand, right? We get really nice stuff. So then they open this box and nice card in there that we get written by an elementary school student.

And it's they feel like somebody's thinking about 'em, and they're not. By themselves because they might have a strong family like Nick did big Italian family that was there every day and every night. Some of these people don't have that support, and it's like they get this kit and they're like, oh, this is a, this is amazing.

Yeah. So small little things of generosity really go a long way 

[00:30:46] John Boruk: it was neat. I was hoping that you had brought one here today, cause it gives socks and a hat and as you mentioned, all the other things that come with it. It's really cool. And you, throughout the year you do have different fundraising events.

Talk about some of [00:31:00] those. May, is there one that's coming up? I know there's obviously the golf tournament's gonna be probably come summertime, but some of the events that you do have up in what you do to bring awareness to all this.  

[00:31:09] Jeff Baxter:. So we. Being a team of 11, 12 people, we, we have to like, spread it out across, we have to raise that $4 million.

We spread it out across the four quarters, just like an athletic match. And so we do the typical nonprofit stuff like a gala, which is in September. . We actually have six Goff outings. Oh, wow. And we have several five Ks. We just had one in December a holiday themed one. We're gonna have one in April coming up in, in the second quarter.

But we. our, we also launched several national campaigns. And you mentioned, with Nick being a lacrosse player, lacrosse really helped the foundation take flight. , the support of, his whole vision was like his lacrosse brother and sisterhood was not gonna let him down and was gonna keep this thing [00:32:00] going.

And it really has, I. We probably raise a million dollars a year in college across with college, across teams, men's and women's, which is amazing, the support we get there. And then, we're also developing ways that we can spread our wings outside of that. Like with the other events that we do we have people, do corn events for us.

We have, sponsored lacrosse tournaments or basketball events camps. What we just launched last week is a campaign for high school and youth student athletes called Attack Cancer. And attack cancer allows an athlete to utilize their. As a way to, to support the foundation. Now what does that look like?

They could pledge a game a week, a month, or even a season for somebody that they love that's battling cancer and do an attack, cancer initiative. where they're pledging their [00:33:00] season. What, let's say they're a quarterback, they could pledge their touchdowns or , a goalie could pledge their saves and they, they circulate a, the story on social media and they can capture community service hours and really learn a little bit about Nick and what he started and.

To learn about the why and why it's good to be a good teammate, why it's good to be a good person in the community. We try to, we always say we want to build holistic student athletes like Nick was, right? Yes. In the reflection now. Back up 20 years ago, I was a sophomore in college playing college athletics and my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and I really didn't really think it was gonna be that bad cuz you hear of that happening all the time.

And it definitely was a stressor for me as a sophomore in college and unfortunately my [00:34:00] mother's cancer. Went the way that I didn't think it was gonna go, and she eventually passed away when I was a junior. And if it wasn't for my teammates, my college professors administration really rallied behind me and really allowed me to keep going to school during that whole situation.

Still playing college lacrosse. . If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have been able to make it through. So 20 years later and I, my position was attack, which is an offensive player, so it was really cool to rebrand this campaign to make it called attack cancer. Yeah. When that was my position when I was going through a really tough time in life.

And just like Nick, he rallied because of his, his He might not have survived his cancer, but he knew his team had his back. And I felt the same way 20 years ago. And to be able to provide student athletes the opportunity to help their community and help somebody in [00:35:00] their family was really unique about attack cancer is last year.

I had a boy that was playing in Rhode Island for a Catholic high school in Rhode Island. He's now a freshman at Brighton University, and he was pledging his ground balls. Like every time he picks up the ground, a ball off the ground, he was gonna track it. He was gonna say yeah, I'm gonna just you're running a 5k.

 Instead he's picking up ground balls. Yeah. So he's doing really well. We write like a little article about him and he's a, listen Mike, one of my good friends from the year before graduated, but he has leukemia, and he was a football player, he was a lacrosse player. He was like a star on the team.

Everybody loved this kid. And unfortunately he's now got leukemia and his mom and dad have to go to Boston. Is there any way that we can help him? So we were able to take funds raised from the attack cancer campaign to give to this kid in Rhode Island so his parents could go and not incur costs to go to Boston for his bone marrow transplant.

And to me that's. . That's [00:36:00] why I do what I do. Yeah. It's like I engaged this kid that knew nothing about Headstrong. He starts doing the campaign, doing it for all the right reasons. His community starts to really like, support him and get behind him. And then he himself steps up and says, I wanna help my teammate.

I, what I'm doing is really cool, but I wanna see if. All he did was make a phone call to me. And that's not common these days with high school kids. No. You know what I mean? Like they don't typically communicate well, they typically text you . Yeah. And it was really cool to be able to see that's just one.

One example of many of how this campaign where we're trying to preach, like I, I was trying I said a couple minutes ago where we're almost mimicking how Nick was. He was a servant leader. He was always thinking about his team and his teammates, and so we're trying to build this cool campaign where kids can get involved, they can play the sport they love, but at the same time they're doing [00:37:00] good work.

And because it's also. Needed because these days with like college recruitment and showcases and they're playing multiple teams and multiple sports, it's and the requirements for community service, like in the nineties when I was playing high school sports, I didn't have to get community service hours.

If you did it, it was great. , right? And it would help, on your college applications. But now these schools are making it required, especially if you go to a private school and these kids are like, when am I supposed to do this community service? So we tried to build something where they can do it while they're doing the sport they love.

That's perfect. Yes. And it's also, another topic is like the social media topic. You always hear all these things about kids posting negative things on social media. Like here's a positive thing. Absolutely. A student athlete can post? Absolutely. And say Hey hey I'm helping, Jimmy's my best friend is going through a problem 

[00:37:51] John Boruk: That's a great point for, let's just say the high school athlete that wants to get into college, Don't think that these administrators and people aren't looking at your social media [00:38:00] accounts to see the quality of individual that is applying at these institutions.

So when you see. If, you look at somebody's social media account and they're putting up the hashtag #headstrong, whatever it is, and I think that's a great way to make it, to turn social media, because so much of it is just a cesspool of negativity, it's just, but this is a great way to to turn around and you never know who's gonna look at it.

You never know who will look and say, look at that person, because the whole essence of this podcast is, Become a leader. Be a leader. There's so many different ways. You can make an impact. You can affect your community. You can be a leader. Just wearing these lime green shoelaces is a good start because somebody's gonna see that they are, like I said, and that this has really become.

The primary awareness platform for what you guys do is Yeah, these green shoelaces. And when I went through and I looked on the website that people would, they'd take unique pictures, they would post that [00:39:00] on there and word would spread. And when it started, it's a conversation starter. It is, it's a conversation starter.

And what it did is it started by Hofstra wearing these to wear. Lacrosse programs, Virginia and Duke and all, and it just worked its way down and that's how you can have an impact. 

[00:39:16] Jeff Baxter: It was crazy like two, two seasons ago, University of Virginia wore them throughout the entire they won the national championship that year.

But they wore it through the entire tournament and no one really knew. They were like, oh, they're just supporting Headstrong. But there was a boy in Virginia that we were supporting that Hadio Sarcoma, and they were battling for him. And so this was like a way for their coach and their team to show him like, Hey, we're gonna wear these all the way to the national championship.

And they interviewed the coach, Lars Tiffany at the press conference, and the first thing he did is he put the trophy on the table and he said, I first wanna start by telling you guys why we were wearing the green laces. We were [00:40:00] wearing it for David Alexander, who's battling cancer back in Winchester, Virginia.

And David, we're thinking about you. And it was like, it was an amazing way to show that support for us, but at the same time, show that support for the kid because it's on national television, 

[00:40:17] John Boruk: And it's a talking point, right? Every time I think in the month of October when the NFL players wear pink.

now you instantly know That's for the Susan Koman Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation. 

[00:40:28] Jeff Baxter: So you to see that line speaking of the NFL. Yeah. This year for my calls, my cleats, oh, the shoes had the cleats. We actually had 10 athletes 10 players wear cleats for headstrong. We couldn't get any Eagles player.

Unfortunately, we're still working on it. So if there's any Eagles players out there, I wanna, oh, it back cat players we had a guy on the Cowboys with, had a guy on the Jaguars. We had Joe Mixon on the Bengals. Bengals. We had, man, this gentleman that plays for the Packers, he actually caught a touchdown, jumped and did the Lambeau.[00:41:00] 

With the lime green shoes with the on it was awesome. Oh, 

[00:41:03] John Boruk: What great exposure . Alright. The website is headstrong.org. There's so many, like I said, we talked about how you can get involved from the golf tournaments to the gala. Just get, if you want to get one of the comfort kits people wanted to volunteer.

They just contact the organization. 

[00:41:20] Jeff Baxter: Yeah. If you go on our website. On headstrong.org on the top right there's a get involved section. You can click that and it'll eventually lead to a form that you can fill out and you can get involved in some of our hospital events where we're working in Philadelphia.

If you're outside the Philadelphia area, we always could use help just spreading the awareness and doing a fun fundraising campaign. Attack cancer.com is the, is the that servant leadership, community service thing for high school student athletes that we spoke about. And yeah just go on and learn a little bit about us.

If you like YouTube, social media, we're all over that. Headstrong. F n D is all of our social [00:42:00] media handles and we do a, we're storytellers, so I feel like we do a good job of telling the stories of the families we're supporting and the people that are actually helping. Do the work cuz we're just stewards of the mission, right?

It's not like the 10 of us or 11 are single-handedly doing all this work. It's, we're just the stewards of the idea and facilitating what all our donors are supporting us for. And we have an army of volunteers that have been, whether they just started recently or been doing it for years you can never.

You can never act alone in these initiatives. And the Collelouris have to get all the credit for kind of, keeping their loved one's memory alive and his mission alive. But what they did best was they started to involve the community, which is rolled over the years.  

[00:42:46] John Boruk: Yeah. All right. It's the headstrong foundation inspired by Nicholas Collelouri. It sounds like an incredible kid from what you described, what he, where his mindset was when he was going through [00:43:00] his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma to being the inspiration behind what is a multimillion dollar. Nonprofit organization.

Very cool. Jeff, thanks so much for stopping by. If there's anything you want add, I don't want the color Lures to come back to you, , when they listen to this and say, you forgot to mention this . So you better get it out there now so that you're not, they're not gonna remember what you said.

They're gonna remember what you didn't say. So anyway, if you got something else, go ahead.  

[00:43:24] Jeff Baxter: It's all about being a leader and building community and Yeah. And being a good teammate. Yeah. That's what the world needs more of these days. It's peeping people helping each other up and that's what we're all about.

Yeah. We're just trying to make that possible for families and, whether their life is saved or they turned over every rocking stone to try and save their life. That's our mission. Yeah. 

[00:43:46] John Boruk: Alright Jeff Baxter, the Headstrong Foundation. Thanks for coming in. And if you're out there, go to headstrong.org. Check it out. Just look at it. There's so much information, so much about the websites is fantastic. I like it. And you'll spend several minutes just [00:44:00] really getting to know what you guys do. So I appreciate you coming in. I wish you all the best and I'm gonna find a way to get involved.

You guys got something every month. Thanks. Yeah. So it's good. All right. We're gonna wrap up the show like we always do. Our quote of the week. Now we're recording the show on Martin Luther King Day, but it's not actually going to be available on MLK Day. But our quote of the week is inspired by one of the greatest Americans to ever live.

And it was Martin Luther King who said, if you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. And if you can't walk, then crawl. But by all means, Keep moving. And those are, that is certainly words of wisdom for what we've been talking about on this episode. That's gonna do it for us. Remember, as always, we want you to subscribe however you listen.

Apples, Spotify, Google, Amazon Music. We're out there on all platforms. If you get a chance, you listen to us. Hit us up with a review, tell us what you think. That'll help us move up the charts as well. And we're all, we've already in the month of January [00:45:00] exceeded as many downloads as we have in any other month prior.

We've only been around for four months, but obviously you guys are doing a great job getting the word out because that's what we want to do. It's all about giving back to the community, getting information out there and. Thanks for and with that, thanks for listening. Thanks to Jeff and thanks to Listen for you for listening to Raising a Champion.