Real-life action hero – One boy’s drive to cheer children with cancer has spread throughout Baton Rouge, and beyond
Zach Morgan may only be 8 years old, but this little guy isn’t afraid to think big when it comes to helping others. A simple idea, to donate baseball caps to children with cancer, has turned into a growing charitable organization led by Zach himself.
“Zach has a huge baseball cap collection,” says his mother, Sandy. “After seeing several St. Jude commercials on TV, he decided that he wanted to collect cool ‘lids,’ or caps, to give to kids who are battling cancer.”
Zach’s Lidz for Kidz launched in January with little more than a Facebook page, but word of his effort quickly spread. Friends, churches and businesses donated caps, and he held drives at stores and schools. So far, Zach has collected more than 1,500 caps and hats.
As exciting as collecting the hats has been, distributing them is even more satisfying. Zach initially partnered with Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital and set out solely to give hats to children staying there. But the community response has been so immensely positive that he has expanded his reach, donating caps to the Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation of Nevada and shipping out hats to children around the country.
Through his latest partnership, with Cancer Services of Greater Baton Rouge, Zach recently donated 50 caps to that organization’s Camp Care, a weeklong summer day camp for children with cancer.
“My favorite part of my project is getting photos of the kids that I send caps to with big smiles on their faces,” Zach says. “I also like visiting with the kids at the hospital and just hanging out with them.”
Zach and his family recently traveled to New York, where he received a Hasbro Community Action Hero award. While there, he met an official with ESPN, and the network followed up by sending him 150 more caps. His next idea is to contact sports teams directly in hopes that they will also get involved with Lidz for Kidz.
“Seeing the kids so excited about getting hats,” says Sandy, “has given him more motivation to continue his project and reach out to kids all over.” ¦
