Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kylee McGrane-Zarnoch. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kylee, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

A Moment of Magic didn’t start as a nonprofit idea. It started as a question I couldn’t shake: Why does joy feel optional in places where it’s needed most?

For three years, I watched my grandparents navigate long-term hospital care. I saw how clinical environments, even with the best intentions, can unintentionally ware at a person’s spirit. I saw how easy it was for someone I loved to go from person to patient. But, I also saw how quickly a single human moment, a laugh, a conversation, a flash of imagination, could restore something medicine couldn’t reach.

That tension is what moved me from idea to action. After my grandparents were hospitalized for several years and passed away, I wanted to find a way to pay homage to them and this idea. So, I put on a princess costume and visited a local children’s hospital. That first visit confirmed what would become the backbone of my work: play, community, and joy are not a distraction from healing, they are a critical part of it.

From there, execution looked less like a master plan and more like disciplined curiosity. I spent nights writing policies in my dorm room, learning volunteer management between classes, calling hospitals before my morning lectures, and building training systems from scratch. I followed the need, listened to our community, built the scaffolding as we grew, and stayed guided by our guiding principle: Children deserve holistic, dignity-centered care that honors their humanity, not just their diagnosis.

When a video of our visits went viral and millions of people saw our work, college students across the country asked, “How do we do this too?” That was the moment the idea became a movement. So I built an expert team, chapters, a national training model, trauma-informed curriculum, and a team of young leaders who understood that joy is essential infrastructure.

Today, A Moment of Magic is a nationwide organization reaching over 150,000 medically vulnerable children, but the DNA hasn’t changed. We’re still a grassroots movement driven by empathy, imagination, and the belief that healing encompasses emotional, mental, and social wellbeing.

If there’s one lesson I’d share with anyone trying to move from idea to execution: Pay attention to the moments that stir something in you, the ones that break your heart, and the ones that lift it. A Moment of Magic didn’t start because I had everything figured out. It started because something in my life cracked open, and instead of ignoring it, I followed it. I’ve learned that when something breaks your heart and pulls you forward at the same time, that’s your direction. That’s the thing you’re meant to build.

You don’t need things to be perfect or to have it all figured out. You just need to take the first step, listen closely to what the work teaches you, ask for help, and stay rooted in the reason you began.

Kylee, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Kylee McGrane-Zarnoch, the Founder and Executive Director of A Moment of Magic, a national nonprofit organization that harnesses the power of play to spark joy, foster connection, reduce isolation and support the mental health and emotional healing for medically vulnerable children and their families.

My entry point into this field began when both of my grandparents were in long-term hospital care, and I witnessed firsthand how illness impacts the whole ecosystem around a person: their identity, their mental health, and their sense of connection. I felt this deep pull to create something that preserved humanity in the moments when life feels its heaviest because I felt strongly that they were essential components of the care plan.

What A Moment of Magic Does Today

From that small seed in a college dorm room, A Moment of Magic has become the largest organization of its kind in the country. Today, we are a national movement powered by thousands of trained college student volunteers who believe joy, dignity, and emotional wellbeing are essential parts of a child’s healing and actively become a part of their support team.

Today, our work is anchored in three core programs designed to support medically vulnerable children and their families wherever they are:

1. Magic Makers

Our trauma-informed, play-based hospital visits, led by highly trained college students, bring connection, confidence, and imagination directly to children in medical settings. Whether our volunteers come dressed as characters, lead arts and crafts activities, or simply are there to spend time as a friendly face and peer, these visits serve as a meaningful layer of psychosocial support, helping reduce anxiety, spark joy, and restore a sense of normalcy when kids need it most.

2. Express, Create, Heal (ECH)

ECH is our Social Emotional Learning program that teaches emotional regulation, resilience, identity-building, and coping skills through creative, age-appropriate workshops. It’s designed to support the mental and emotional wellbeing of children affected by illness, and it prepares volunteers with specialized training to facilitate healing-centered experiences.

3. AMoM Unlimited

For children who are immunocompromised, inpatient long-term, or unable to participate in person, AMoM Unlimited offers virtual programming that bridges the gap. Through live sessions and on-demand creative content, kids can still access magic, connection, and emotional support wherever they are.

What truly sets us apart is our college student activation model. We’ve trained and mobilized over 4,000 student volunteers from universities nationwide, building the next generation of empathetic leaders in healthcare, education, psychosocial care, and community service. Their energy, compassion, and dedication amplify our impact and allow us to serve children at a scale that would be impossible otherwise.

We are still powered by students, still fueled by grassroots generosity and yet we’ve become a national leader in trauma-informed, joy-centered programming for medically vulnerable youth. And we’re just getting started.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Running a nonprofit always requires resilience. Resources are limited, needs are high, and the ground is constantly shifting beneath you. I don’t think anything tested that as much as COVID did.

When the pandemic hit, every part of our model had to change overnight. Our work had always been primarily rooted in in-person connection inside hospitals, and suddenly hospital doors were closed, children were isolated, and our college volunteers were sent home. It felt like the ground was disappearing beneath us.

But instead of pausing our mission, we rebuilt it in real time. Within days, we pivoted completely to virtual programming, what eventually became AMoM Unlimited, so children could still experience connection, joy, and emotional support from their hospital rooms or their homes. We created new tools, retrained volunteers, and adapted at a pace that still amazes me. That pivot is what kept our organization alive, relevant, and deeply needed.

What’s less talked about is the resilience required after the initial crisis. As the world reopened, nothing went back to the way it was before. Hospitals were overwhelmed, children’s mental health needs were sharper than ever, and college students were processing their own trauma and transition. We decided to take the opportunity to not just rebuild, but reinvent.

And honestly, that transition gave us something rare: the chance to pause.
We had a moment to step back and listen deeply to our community — children, families, providers, and volunteers. Their feedback made one thing painfully clear: kids needed more support than ever. They needed tools for their emotional health, their identity, their coping skills, and their sense of belonging.

That pause is exactly where Express, Create, Heal (ECH) was born.
We used that time to develop a psychosocial SEL program that addressed the very gaps our partners were seeing every day. It wasn’t an add-on. It was a response, a meaningful one, to what children and families told us they needed.

Coming out on the other side, we emerged stronger, more innovative, and more aligned with our mission. COVID forced us to pivot. The years after forced us to evolve. And that evolution, including the birth of ECH, fundamentally transformed our organization.

It taught me that resilience isn’t just about surviving disruption; it’s about using it to become more intentional, more impactful, and more attuned to the people you serve.

A Moment of Magic is proof of that.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Our reputation has been built through the combination of our national reach, the depth and quality of our programs, and our consistent commitment to doing this work with seriousness, intention, and care.

Today, we partner with more than 400 hospitals and nonprofits, have served more than 150,000 children in all 50 states and 7 countries, and activated nearly 4,000 trained college student volunteers across the country. But none of that happened by accident. It happened because we’ve always understood that being invited into a child’s hardest moments is a privilege, one that requires preparation, humility, and accountability.

From day one, we set a standard that every volunteer would be highly trained, trauma-informed, and deeply aware of the emotional weight of this work. Hospitals and families trust us because we don’t treat joy as entertainment; we treat it as an essential part of care. That philosophy, joy paired with evidence-based support, has allowed us to operate at a level that feels both heartfelt and professional.

We also built our reputation through consistency. Whether it’s a bedside visit from a Magic Maker, a virtual session through AMoM Unlimited, or a psychosocial workshop through Express, Create, Heal, we show up fully and reliably. Partners know that when they work with us, their patients will feel seen, supported, and emotionally uplifted. We’ve partnered with some of our hospitals for over a decade and those are relationships that are deeply meaningful to us.

But ultimately, what sets us apart is the scale and integrity of our model. We’re the largest organization of our kind in the country, and yet we’ve never lost our grassroots heart. Our college student activation model, now refined, research-backed, and nationally recognized, allows us to bring both reach and relational depth to pediatric care in a way few organizations can.

I believe our reputation grew because we not only dreamed big, but because we delivered big. And we did it with the mindset that every child, every interaction, and every partnership deserves our absolute best.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.amomentofmagic.org
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/momentofmagicfoundation
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/amomentofmagicfoundation
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylee-mcgrane/