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

Hi Tina, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Small but Mighty Heroes began the public outreach at the very beginning of COVID and it has been a very difficult journey. With so many denials of public services, visits, and lack of volunteers, I was left with a perpetual fight with committed volunteers, funding, and public trust despite camaraderie and public presence because they had never heard of us. I felt I was getting so many strikes, but I refused to give up. I believe in my mission and my character. I was not backing down.

From the beginning of our journey in 2019 of becoming a 501(c)(3), we operated our fundraising from storages and fundraising on our Facebook group.
The more people learned of us, the more of a demand for our help. Between running several storage units for our fundraising operations to working from home at the home office, I was being pulled in several different directions as volunteers were limited due to the lack of having a more public office.

In 2021, the idea of collaborating all operations under one roof began to form and in March of 2022, we opened our first brick and mortar. This is our bistro style headquarters.

Tina, 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?

I’ve been innately compelled to help children my entire life. I was born with this urge and maternal instinct to help and protect children. I had a firm belief that I was going to become a pediatrician.

I studied Pre-med where I dove into research and it was then that I realized that I truly had a passion for the research. After working in pediatric primary care for 7 years, I discovered that primary care wasn’t where I wanted to focus, so I aspired to become a pediatric surgeon and focus on research. I started a new path working in cardiovascular where I was introduced to a lot of fascinating research and practices, but again, I yearned for pediatric care. So I studied for my medical exam for med school.

Little did I realize that life would throw me a surprise by blessing me with another child, 12 years after having my first child. My career path was detoured a bit, but when life throws you lemons, you make lemonade. I resigned from the hospital and I began working for a medical IT company called Cerner. Here I was introduced to their foundation, where I designated 6% of my check to go to their funding. I was introduced to so many children and it was then, I was introduced to a little boy named Blakey. To this day, I recall his bright blue eyes and his story is etched within my mind. I remember the stories mom shared and the updates she would selflessly share on her blog. The day he passed away, I cried holding my child who was near Blakey’s age. The agony I felt was unbearable; and to even imagine the pain of losing my own child tore me apart. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the agonizing pain of the reality of that concept.
It was then, I knew where my path was leading me. In 2017 I began the beginning of my nonprofit work of spreading awareness of childhood cancer, advocating and providing tailored support to children battling cancer and their families. It was such a hard journey and remains as such. But at the beginning, it was very difficult with people who didn’t quite understand WHY I would want to help. The skepticism of WHY someone who didn’t have a child with cancer would want to  open a nonprofit for this journey. The backlash I received from many and the lack of support I received from many in my own circle. It was a “muse” or a “hobby” in their eyes. Little did many realize, this was my passion; my career path.

In 2019, I officially resigned from corporate to focus solely on my mission and building my organization. With the support of my husband, I jumped through every hurdle and pushed through every obstacle. None of it was easy and it was a HUGE RISK! Everything about this journey had so many uncertainties. I don’t do well with uncertainties; however, one thing was certain, my PASSION WAS FIERCE and I had my eye on my ambitions. I saw the bigger picture and I wasn’t going to let it slip away from me.

In 2019, we became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. In 2021, we began the planning of opening a unique headquarters where we could put all of what we do under one roof without having to rely on other businesses to determine the exposure to the public of our organization and what we do.

Our work was being done through continual fundraising as we collected the community’s unwanted items and posted the items on our Facebook page where the page members would make a donation of a suggested amount and would pick up the item they selected. We expanded the reach by offering items to be shipped which then we were receiving support from many out of state. We were doing our fundraising operations from storages and the day to day operations were being done from my in-home office. More difficulties were presented when the need of volunteers were expressed, but due to having an in-home office, it made parents uncomfortable for their student/child to do volunteer services; understandably so. We were presented with more obstacles and roadblocks. We went from 25 children that we supported to over 326 children. I needed a better way to operate our day to day operations and fundraising, but more ideally all under one roof.

With the visions I had and the determination, the idea of a unique storefront was born. Through fear of the unknown, I didn’t want fear to be the reason why I didn’t follow my vision. I put everything in God’s hands and I took the leap of faith to open our bistro style headquarters. 5 months into having this store front, it’s a terrifying thought to fail. But with the outreach and introduction to the community, I have faith that this vision will be seen by all who walk through our door.

Our bistro style headquarters is superhero themed. My office is in the back and we have recently created a special hang out room for local oncology kiddos and their siblings that was revealed on Sept 3rd.

As we say here at Small but Mighty Heroes, “It takes a village and no child fights alone.”

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Every corner presented an obstacle.

Covid hit at the very beginning of our nonprofit growth. We had to overcome by doing things that would be meaningful to the community that would enable us to continue with our fundraising efforts. We had to remain flexible and creative. So we operated out of storage units, fundraising via rummage sales and collecting the community’s unwanted items.

That evolved to shipping items, which increased our outreach and fundraising efforts.

Lemonade stands, coffee stands, and tea stands were hindered due to businesses not allowing us to set up and the public interaction was hindered because of Covid. This was put on pause.

Remaining persistent, creative and flexible, we decided to open a bistro style headquarters where we could continue our operation and fundraising all under one roof while offering a way for the community to learn more of who we are and what we do without the fear of them not being able to make a donation. By purchasing a tea, coffee, lemonade or any other menu item, they would still be helping to fund the organization. All net proceeds from the daily sales from the bistro side of the headquarters goes to help fund the programs that are designed to offer tailored support to children battling cancer and their families.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I’m still learning every day, but remaining constant and reaching out to the community through introductions and free sampling of what we have to offer in our bistro style headquarters has helped to introduce them to our existence. Every person who walks through the door has been moved and intrigued by our operation and the uniqueness of our shop. I hope to reach even more people with this method.

Contact Info:

• Website: smallbutmightyheroes.org
• Instagram: instagram.com/smallbutmightyheroes19 | instagram.com/mightyheroessbmh
• Facebook: Facebook.com/smallbutmightyheroes. | Facebook.com/Mightyheroessbmh
• Youtube: small but mighty heroes

Image Credits
The painting credited to Cheyenne Rose Doolittle.