Highlander of the Issue: Olivia Zhang

highlander of the issue junior starts nonprofit for kids with cancer

Olivia Zhang’s Cancer Kids First provides support for children fighting the disease

TARA PANDEY REPORTER

When she was 12 years old, junior Olivia Zhang lost two of the most important people in her life, her grandfather and her former teacher, to cancer. Zhang struggled heavily with the losses. Her grandfather was her role model, and she had a very close relationship with her teacher, visiting her regularly even after leaving elementary school.

When her grandfather received his diagnosis, Zhang and her family flew to China to take care of him. During her visit she stayed by his side, using her talent for painting to comfort him. Once she arrived back in the U.S., Zhang decided to use her love for painting to raise money for her grandfather’s treatment. She sold her paintings through her Instagram page to fundraise, but it did not make as big of an impact as she had hoped.

“Both [my grandfather and my teacher] always motivated me to be better than who I was at that time,” Zhang said. “Losing both of them so close together, I realized that just selling artwork to raise money was not going to be enough. It opened my eyes to how many people were impacted by cancer.” She decided to find a way to make an impact in the lives of future patients fighting cancer, specifically I HAD TO WATCH MY GRANDFATHER GO pediatric cancer patients. THROUGH THE UNIMAGINABLE. I CAN’T EVEN “I had to watch my grandfather go through the unimaginable,” FATHOM LITTLE KIDS GOING THROUGH THAT.” Zhang said. “I can’t even fathom little kids going through that.”- OLIVIA ZHANG Thus, the nonprofit organization JUNIOR Cancer Kids First (CKF) was born in 2019. According to their website, CKF aims to provide young children diagnosed with cancer with a more enjoyable childhood. Zhang organizes toy and book drives, then sends the donations to pediatric hospitals to help patients pass the time. Volunteers

FUN-Raising With Friends — Olivia Zhang and Thaïs Rolly raise money for pediatric cancer in September. This two-day fundraiser was done in partnership with Kendra Scott.

COuRageous Cassidy — Cassidy Anne, a pediatric cancer patient going through chemotherapy, plays with her new toys. Cancer Kids First holds toy and book donation drives to help children like Cassidy.

use CKF’s art program to design and donate inspirational cards to patients. The organization’s International Treatment Services Program provides products specifically for developing countries, such as hospital resource kits, as well as funding towards cancer treatment and specialized training for oncologists. Today, CKF has

reached over one million patients, has partnered with 55 hospitals and has had help from over 18,000 volunteers. Despite this success, the organization had humble beginnings.

Zhang started to grow the organization by reselling her clothes, creating a small tie-dye business to raise money for her cause.

Everything changed when her organization blew up on TikTok. After a TikTok she made amassed over a million views, the account quickly started gaining traction, reaching more than 20,000 followers at its peak. Volunteers came flooding in soon after, with a total of roughly 20,000 people applying to help with the organization’s mission.

“As a result [of social media], we have chapters across the world and are able to partner with large organizations and reach more audiences, and even help patients in third world countries,” said junior Thaïs Rolly, a chief financial officer of CKF.

Even though this was a huge moment for CKF, it was also very stressful for Zhang. Once they reached a million views on TikTok, the amount of outreach they achieved was overwhelming. She was forced to pull multiple all-nighters to keep up with it and saw a significant drop in her grades.

“I felt really overwhelmed and my grades in school were not doing well,” Zhang said. “Math is a subject I especially struggle in, and my grades went from 70% on tests to 60% and downwards.”

This stress made her question her involvement in CKF. Her struggles with balancing work and school led her to wonder if it was even worth it, as she felt like she was sacrificing her education for the organization. Her mother was also worried about her faltering grades and how she would juggle her academic life, social life, physical health and CKF.

“I tried to advise her. I said, ‘Olivia, you might want to cut some time from managing Cancer Kids First,’” Zhang’s mother, Xiaowei Zheng, said. “But she responded, ‘This is the most beautiful part of my high school life, so please, Mom, I will find a way to balance.’”

Despite the challenges she faced, everything began to fall back into place.

“Eventually I learned how to manage my time again,” Zhang said. “I realized that if you truly care about something, you can’t let tiny obstacles like this stop you from helping others.”

Zhang continues to make progress on CKF. The organization formed partnerships with established businesses like Kendra Scott, a popular jewelry store. In September, CKF won the WEGO Health Award for Best Team Performance. They broke boundaries as the only youth-led organization to win an award out of the 21,000 associations nominated. Zhang has big plans for the future of CKF. A specific goal of hers is to extend CKF’s international impact by helping increase the survival rate of pediatric cancer patients in developing countries. Zhang said she is especially excited about the organization’s upcoming plans to work with Shoe4Africa, a nonprofit aimed at improving Africans’ lives, in order to fund and construct the first public pediatric cancer hospital in East Africa. Construction is projected to be completed by the summer of 2022. Zhang plans to continue work on the organization throughout the rest of high school and even during college and beyond. “A lot of people give up their passion projects [after graduating],” Zhang said. “However, Cancer Kids First is definitely something that I would want to extend until I physically cannot do it. I would 100 percent make it a career if I could.”

CARRYINg CKF — Olivia Zhang carries a box full of toys and games. These donations were distributed to kids fighting cancer.