With gorillas and footballs in tow, charity visits sick kids

Mike Martin came to Wesley Medical Center earlier this month bearing gifts – stuffed gorillas and footballs signed by a Kansas City Chiefs’ player – for young cancer patients.

The visits are part of Gold Glove Charities, which delivers gifts to children with cancer and gift cards to their families, says Martin, its founder.

It started with an event in 2015, Gold Glove Week, to raise money for Children Mercy’s Hospital of Kansas City.

“I wanted to do something for our parks and rec. You’re talking about a town of 4,000 people or so,” said Martin, who is the parks and recreation supervisor for the city of Edwardsville in Wyandotte County. “I wanted to teach our kids about giving and grace.”

Bases and umpire shirts were colored gold to identify with childhood cancer awareness. The June 2015 campaign also brought in former Kansas City Royals second baseman and eight-time Gold Glove winner Frank White for a baseball signing event. Martin said Gold Glove Week raised about $5,500.

“About a month later, I went, ‘There’s a much bigger endeavor here than just one week dedicated,’ ” Martin said.

Andrea Hill, a learning facilitator with the Haysville School District who is a longtime friend of Martin’s, started helping shortly after that.

“I just basically heard about what he was doing and then wanted to jump on board,” Hill said. “It just kind of exploded from there.”

The charity started the “Gorillas in Their Mitts” program last holiday season, selling stuffed gorillas to fund the charity’s work.

Martin said the gorilla is a strong animal that conveys the strength and endurance of children going through cancer treatments.

“I’m a Pitt State grad, too, so that doesn’t hurt,” he said.

Now Martin visits hospitals in the Wichita and Kansas City areas to give gas and gift cards to the families of children with cancer.

“It’s about not only treating the disease but treating the family and the patient like human beings,” Martin said.

Last week, Martin gave a couple of footballs signed by Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce to two children at Wesley Medical Center. He didn’t have any personal connections with the Chiefs but knew people who did.

“To do stuff for these families, I’ll annoy people. I don’t care,” he said, chuckling. “It’s amazing what people will do for people if you just ask.”

David Rosen, a pediatric oncologist at Wesley, said families affected by a child’s cancer have huge challenges, no matter how well off they are.

“Your world kind of gets turned upside-down,” Rosen said. “We try to keep things as normal as we can.

“Organizations like (Gold Glove Charities) that bring in fun toys, financial help … those are tremendous helps,” he added.

Rosen also said it helps that people like Martin and Hill come back more than once.

“It’s very important because you develop this trust,” he said. “You don’t have to explain all over again who you are, why you’re here, what’s going on in your life, that kind of thing.

“It’s so much better than formal group therapies or things like that. Everybody is at ease here.”

This story was originally published December 27, 2016 at 7:58 PM with the headline "With gorillas and footballs in tow, charity visits sick kids."