State Honoree

Katlyn Vacanti-Mitchell, 16, of Brentwood, Tennessee, a junior at Ravenwood High School, founded a charitable organization that has raised more than $130,000 to provide free meals and long-distance phone calls for parents of children undergoing lengthy treatments at two children's hospitals. While undergoing treatment for leukemia at Vanderbilt Hospital, Katie discovered that for many families, the costs of seemingly minor things like meals and phone calls become prohibitively expensive when they have to spend long periods of time with their children in hospitals far from home. "God laid it on my heart to help parents like them," she said. While still undergoing chemotherapy, Katie worked with hospital officials to set up a fund that would collect donations and use them to pay for hot meals and cell phones or phone cards for families needing assistance. Katie appealed for contributions in newspaper and radio interviews, in speeches, and through a website that her father helped build (www.katieshelpinghand.com). "Once it got off the ground, it soon started to bloom," Katie said. So much, in fact, that the program has since been expanded to Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. "The way I was raised taught me to help those in need when the opportunity presents itself, not only when it is convenient," said Katie.