We recently connected with Courtney Hughes and have shared our conversation below.
Courtney, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
The Will King Foundation was born out of deep hurt. On December 1, 2017 I gave birth to my and my husband’s third and fourth children, twins named Caroline and Will. They were healthy babies but at their one week check up our pediatrician was worried about their body temperature and levels of jaundice, so she sent us to the ER at Wolfson Children’s Hospital. Through a series of tests and exams, they ended up in the pediatric ICU with septic shock and multi-system organ failure, meaning every organ in their body was shutting down. After about two weeks a test came back that said they were infected with enterovirus, basically the common cold, but since they were newborns with underdeveloped immune systems they couldn’t fight the virus and it attacked their bodies instead. After a month, Caroline recovered from her illness and came home on January 1, 2018 after almost one month in the ICU. Will fought to live, but on March 6, 2018 he passed away due to heart failure after only 96 days on earth. Our family was completely heartbroken and devastated, not really knowing how to take the next step into our lives without Will. He was a special child and his short life impacted many. We wanted to do something to honor his life and decided to call the twins’ cardiologist, Dr. Jose Ettedgui. We grew to love and trust Dr. Ettedgui during our time in the PICU and knew that he ran an organization called Patrons of the Hearts that brings children from undeveloped countries to Wolfson for heart surgery. I called him a few weeks after Will passed away and told him we’d like to do something to honor Will’s life and wanted to see if there was a way we could contribute to his organization. He told me that a little girl named Avery, who was about Will’s age, was coming to Jacksonville from Grenada in about a month for heart treatment and we could sponsor her in Will’s honor. I said, “yes,” knowing that helping another child receive the same care Will did would be the perfect way to honor him. Avery and her mom, Rashiba, came to Jacksonville in April 2018 and Avery received a successful open heart surgery at Wolfson Children’s Hospital. As we spent time with them, we learned their story. Avery had a heart defect, but they didn’t know about it until she was born. To get a diagnosis, they had to travel to Trinadad, a completely different country, for an echocardiogram. As Rashiba was talking I thought about the many times my babies needed an echo at Wolfson. Their nurse would call the echo tech and within the hour they would be in my child’s room performing the imaging. This young mom and her baby were having to travel to another country for that same imaging. It was at that moment I knew we had to keep going and support as many children as possible. Where you live shouldn’t determine whether you live and just because a child is born in a country without access to specialized medical care doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get a chance at life. After many conversations and lots of planning, we decided to start a not for profit business called The Will King Foundation with the mission to support children from developing countries receiving heart treatment in Jacksonville, FL. There was a lot to figure out, from how to legally set up a non-profit, to marketing, events, social media fundraising and donor relations. We also had to figure out how to best care for the families and children we support, creating ways to provide for their needs and make them feel the love of a community around them during such a difficult time. We couldn’t have launched or continue to care for these families without the partnership with Wolfson Children’s Hospital and Patrons of the Hearts. We continue to work them them as they provide the medical care and we provide the support, funding the travel, cost of stay, medications, incidentals and physical needs to sponsor the child for care. Over the past year we have also formed a partnership with the Hospital of Hope in Togo, Africa. This allows us to have a medical missionary doctor screen children in Togo and send their information to the physicians at Wolfson, who can then say whether or not the child is a good candidate for treatment. Starting was really just saying “yes” to the idea and from there it’s been all about partnerships with people who want to work together to give these children a chance at life they otherwise wouldn’t have.
Courtney, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
The heart of The Will King Foundation is the belief that every child deserves a chance at life. When our babies got sick, they received exceptional medical care and had access to doctors, specialists, medications and treatment options because we live close to Wolfson Children’s Hospital. We help provide access to that same care for children who live in countries without access to specialized medical treatment. Worldwide, a heart defect, also known as Congenital Heart Disease (CHD), is the most common of all human birth defects. 1 child out of every 100 is born with CHD. 97% of children in the United States born with heart defects receive timely treatment before their first birthday. 85% of children in the developing world do not have timely access to the heart care that would save their lives. When left uncorrected, these defects can cause considerable suffering and premature death. We believe that where you live shouldn’t determine whether you live, so our mission to to provide the life-saving care and community support that these children would otherwise not have access to.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
As a non-profit, we are 100% funded by charitable contributions. Initially, when we wanted to sponsor Avery, we simply let our family and friends know what we wanted to do to honor Will’s life and set up a way for them to donate to Avery’s sponsorship. After we decided to turn that one sponsorship into a non-profit organization, we had to create a strategy for fundraising. We had no experience fundraising but decided to pursue online fundraising campaigns and local events as a start. We host an annual event here in Jacksonville called Gather + Give. It’s a family-friendly event with live music, food trucks and kids’ activities. Our fourth annual event will be on Saturday, November 5 from 1-5pm at The Keeler Property. This event typically raises around $50,000 and covers the cost of sponsorships for 2-3 children each year. As we’ve grown we’ve also begun to explore grant opportunities and other local fundraisers that can help us reach our goal to raise $2 million to establish an endowment at Wolfson that will create longevity in the pediatric cardiology program. We are very much growing in our fundraising strategy and continue to add, change and refine our programs to reach our goals each year.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
A “client” for us is a child born with a congenital heart defect who lives in a country where they don’t have access to the specialized care they need. For the first two years of the foundation, we sponsored children from all over the world through Patrons of Hearts, the organization run by the cardiologist who took care of our babies when they were in the PIUC. In 2021 I received a message from a women who had been in a discipleship group at our church, The Church of Eleven 22, with me years ago. She had moved to Togo, Africa to be a medical missionary and I hadn’t heard from her in years. She was reaching out because one of her colleagues, Dr. Ben Randal, at The Hospital of Hope in Mango, Togo had a pediatric cardiology patient who needed surgery and wanted to know if we could help. I connected Dr. Ben with Dr. Ettedgui, the cardiologist we work with at Wolfson, and they accepted Fati, a two year old girl from Togo, for care. Fati started our partnership with the Hospital of Hope and now our focus in on serving children in the region of West Africa. Dr. Ben can screen and evaluate children who come to The Hospital of Hope and send their information to Dr. Ettedgui here in Jacksonville. If they are a good candidate for surgery, we will help with the logistics of getting them to Jacksonville and then care for and support them while they are here, usually for 6-8 weeks, as they undergo surgery and recover.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.willkingfoundation.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willkingfoundation/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/willkingfoundation
- Twitter: @willkingfoundation
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzTvlJAdPjh_jNqozXjG0uQ
Image Credits
Awbree O’Quinn Photography