About Us
About AngelWorks
Since 2004
AngelWorks has helped over 1,200 families battling pediatric cancer.
Our Story
When originally founded in 2004, AngelWorks was only ever meant to be a Christmas program, designed to surprise families that had a child or parent with a life threatening illness or injury with a complete Christmas.
That all changed in 2012 when Ellie Hite, the founder of AngelWorks, was driving to work and received a call from a young man named Joe Friend. The voice on the other end of the line explained that he had osteosarcoma and was terminal. He knew his family had spent all of their resources paying for treatments to save his life and there were no funds left to pay for his funeral. Ellie met Joe and his family for dinner a few nights later. She instantly fell in love with his larger than life personality, and his incredible outlook on life. (and death…).
It was through Joe that Ellie learned the shocking statistics on childhood cancers and the unfairness in research funding. They spent the last months of Joe’s life going to radio stations, high schools, churches, and pretty much anywhere that would let them in the doors for Joe to tell his story and raise awareness in hopes of helping those children that would still be fighting even after he was gone. Before Joe passed, he asked Ellie to continue what he started, and to raise awareness for him.
Joe changed Ellie’s life in a profound way, as well as the lives of her children that grew close to him and learned life lessons from him. One of the simple lessons is realizing how precious every day of life we are given truly is, even the very bad days, and to always to “take time to smell the roses”.
Today, AngelWorks has 8 programs to assist families with a child battling cancer. While the McKenna Maille AngelWings fund, which pays for an average of 3 funerals each month, is the most difficult to keep funded (because funerals are expensive!), all 8 programs are unique in their own way and of great importance to the families we serve.
AngelWorks will continue to raise awareness and assist families with a child battling cancer until a cure is found, both in Joe’s memory and in memory of ALL of the kids that we lose each year.
Families Helped
Funerals Paid For
Christmases Saved
People Involved
What Drives Us
Our Mission
We are working hard to raise awareness and funds for kids with cancer. We will continue to provide financial and emotional support to families with a child battling cancer while working diligently to create awareness.We believe creating awareness, is the key to creating better funding, leading to new treatments for our childhood cancer warriors. Until a cure is found, we will also continue to pay for funerals and provide support for grieving families after the loss of a child.
Our Programs
Angel Party
Angel Wish
Angel Fund
Angel Wings
Angel Pics
Angel Support
Angel Talks
Angel Claus
