I remember sitting at a board meeting about six months after Kate’s Kart began. One of our directors suggested that we host a celebration near Kate’s birthday…a way to recognize the incredible success of our first year and bring our supporters together.
The idea was simple: an ice cream social.
We decided to host a free community event to celebrate both Kate’s birthday and the first year of Kate’s Kart. We served free ice cream, offered a few games at Parkview Park, and invited the community to join us.
A couple hundred people came. We gave away five three-gallon tubs of ice cream that were packed in coolers with dry ice. It was simple, heartfelt, and exactly what we hoped it would be.
The next year, the event grew a little larger. We added a Scholastic Book Fair, a few costumed characters, and more activities for families. By year three, we had outgrown the park and moved to the parking lot at Grace Point Church. There, we were able to add inflatables, a live band, and a small concession stand.
Over the next several years, the event continued to evolve. Fire trucks, small rides, live animals, dunk tanks, and pony rides became part of the celebration. The amount of ice cream needed grew far beyond those original five tubs.
In 2015, we moved the event to Riverside Gardens in Leo. Attendance continued to climb, and by 2019, Prairie Farms was bringing an entire refrigerated truck to store nearly 100 tubs of ice cream to serve over 2,500 people.
What had started as a small birthday celebration had become a beloved community event.
Along the way, we added sponsors and received day-of donations. The event was raising around $50,000 annually and helping us expand our mission.
Then everything changed.
In 2020, we were preparing to return to the park when a global pandemic forced us to rethink everything. Our board met over Zoom and began brainstorming ways we could continue our celebratory fundraiser while keeping everyone safe.
Our focus quickly turned to two groups that needed support: healthcare workers and small businesses.
Since our volunteers were unable to enter hospitals, healthcare staff members were distributing books to children on our behalf. We wanted to thank them. At the same time, many locally owned businesses were struggling.
So we created a new model.
We delivered free ice cream treats to all of the hospitals we served. A small thank you for helping gift our books.
We also partnered with ten locally owned ice cream shops and encouraged supporters to visit their favorite participating location, enjoy a special treat, and make a donation to Kate’s Kart. Together, we celebrated our mission while supporting local businesses and showing appreciation to healthcare workers.
The response was overwhelming.
Supported by our sponsors and donors, it became the most successful fundraiser we had ever held.
The people who love and believe in our mission showed up in a big way.
In 2021, we followed the same model and expanded to even more shops. Volunteers were able to be present at participating locations, sharing our story and mission with customers. Generous donors began to provide funding so that we could give books away during the event.
The fundraiser was even more successful than the year before.
Maybe we had stumbled onto something special. Maybe something good really had come from the challenges of COVID.
Over the following years, we continued adding participating ice cream shops throughout the counties we serve. Supporters in places like Warsaw, Angola, and other communities could now participate close to home. We reached entirely new audiences, built relationships with local business owners, and introduced more families to the mission of Kate’s Kart.
And we still got to celebrate with ice cream—Kate’s favorite treat.
The new format also eliminated many of the challenges that came with hosting a large outdoor event. Rainstorms no longer threatened months of planning. Extreme heat no longer kept families away. Our celebration could happen across dozens of communities at once.
Today, we are preparing for the seventh year of this community-wide model.
This year, 36 ice cream shops are partnering with us. We will distribute thousands of books to children over an entire weekend. We have a presence in communities across northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio, and we have built incredible friendships and partnerships with local shop owners.
Most exciting of all, our signature event has become our largest fundraiser.
This year, our sponsors have already contributed more than $120,000. When we add day-of donations, T-shirt sales, and contributions from participating shop owners, we could raise more than $150,000.
That happens because our community believes in what we do.
Families stop for ice cream. Volunteers share our story. Businesses open their doors. Sponsors invest in our mission. Together, they make it possible for Kate’s Kart to continue serving hospitalized children.
What began with five tubs of ice cream and a few hundred people has grown into something far beyond what we could have imagined.
And while the event has changed over the years, its purpose remains the same: celebrating Kate’s birthday, bringing our community together, and creating comfort, choice, and connection for hospitalized children by raising funds needed to make it happen!
That is something worth celebrating.
Krista
