We recently connected with Colleen Byrne and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Colleen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
After a 3 year battle with Neuroendocrine Carcinoma, a rare, incurable cancer that was caused by his 30+ year dedication to the fire department, my father passed away during the spring semester of my freshman year of high school. At this point in my life I still had so much growing to do and so much learning. How was I supposed to navigate a new world that didn’t include my father? A little over a year late, after much time of coping, in the winter of 2018, I came across a contest. At this point in my life I pretty much already know I wanted to be an interior designer, and through my love of interior design and Chip and Joanna Gaines, I found the Chipstarter contest. The contest asked that you submit a video proposal about a dream you have, and the team would choose a few submissions that they would help kickstart. I didn’t originally start with a dream, but as I thought about it, a passion began to grow. I first wanted to buy an extractor, a special washing machine that will extract the carcinogens out of firefighter turnout gear and thus reduce the risk of cancer, for my dad’s former fire station. These machines are not funded by the government but are so important. You would. be surprised to know how much cancer in the fire department doesn’t so much come from breathing it in, but from absorbing it through the skin. Giving back to the supportive brotherhood was something important to me. The dream grew into wanting to buy extractors for all the stations in Kansas City, and ultimately landed at proposing the startup of a non-profit foundation that would aim to give back to the entire brotherhood across America. Although I didn’t win the contest in the Fall of 2018, my family, friends, and teachers encouraged me to still pursue this dream. I was just a Junior in high school at this point, barely 17. I didn’t think this was for me. How was I supposed to start and run a foundation? But my mom put in a lot of work to help me out, and finally, on December 31st, 2018 we were recognized as an official non-profit by the US government. This was monumental to me because it felt like the next step of working through my grief and putting all the hurt towards something that actually meant something.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am currently going into my senior year in college, attending UNL. I am studying interior design with minors in architectural studies and entrepreneurship. I “got into the non-profit business” simply because of the passion I had to give back to very important people in our society. I have four amazing firemen in my family, my father, grandfather, and two uncles, and many more built in family members from the brotherhood in the fire department. These brave men put their life on the line not only when they walk into burning buildings, but every second they have their gear on their bodies. Carrying on the education my father had started to help keep his brothers same seemed only natural. I wanted to do everything I could to protect every man and woman on the fire department from the tragedy my mom and I had to live through. I am most proud that I made good of all the horrible circumstanced I had to live through. Watching your father be sick day in and day out from the ages of around 10 to age 15 is very traumatic. Mom and dad can’t hide the hurt anymore. I wasn’t looking through rose colored glasses. The dark and scary world that is very real for many, became very apparent for me at a very young age. I am so astounded with myself in the positivity I was able to make out of such a difficult situation.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Covid-19 sure didn’t help many businesses. But in our little world where we had just had our first fundraiser a few months prior, and had the second fundraiser in the works, it was difficult to keep up the momentum and the support. Many people asked what were were doing and the answer was simply we don’t know. None of us our professionals. There’s only 5 of us on the board and we all have full time commitments between work and school. Many people were looking for the next big thing from us and we didn’t know where to go when the world shut down. We coped with cancelling our 2020 tournament and shifted focus to a spring event in 2021. As the date grew closer there was a new outbreak and yet again we had to cancel. So we then shifted yet again, and finally later in the fall of 2021, we could finally resume our fundraisers and hosted our second bi-annual pickle ball tournament. Our resilience surely showed as we continued to roll with the punches that the pandemic brought. We have now successfully implemented 3 extractors in fire stations from just our 2 fundraisers.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
A time of pivot I would say is now. The initial joy and interest in what I am doing is gone because everyone has picked up with life and covid is over. It’s also crucial to recognize that I am a totally different person than when I started the foundation. There’s a lot of things that I’ve realized that take away some of the joy in the foundation for me. I’m now at a point where I can take more responsibility and it’s a mental shift for me. I already have so much going on with school and it’s an extra thing I have to balance on my plate. But it is something I can do because it’s such a passion. We as a board are now changing direction from our pickle ball tournaments which are the only fundraising we’ve don’t so far. We are now trying to incorporate night golf tournaments to get people excited again. We also have an added layer of shift as all of the Kansas city area fire stations now have extractors. The hurdle is now to find where we will fundraise for next.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.byrneoutcancer.org/
- Instagram: byrneoutcancer and my personal is colleen.a.byrne
- Linkedin: Colleen Byrne
Image Credits
for picture of me in pink dress- Courtney Goff