Kate's Cause

September 1, 2022  by

Alex’s Army Making an Impact – Our September Community Outreach Partner

As we #GoGold this September, we have selected Alex’s Army Childhood Cancer Foundation as our community outreach partner! We are honored to donate $1 from every haircut we perform this month to this impactful, local non-profit. Alex’s Army Childhood Cancer Foundation is a 501c3 whose mission is to raise awareness and funding for Childhood Cancer Research while providing Christian focused support to the Childhood Cancer Community.

Through the financial gifts of supporters, Alex’s Army has been able to contribute an astounding $440,000 over the last several years specifically to help fund the REST Immunotherapy Trial at Children’s National Hospital. AACF has remained fully committed to funding this particular trial as they share in the belief with many in the Pediatric Oncology World that Immunotherapies are the future of pediatric cancer treatments.

Be sure to check out the many amazing events that AACF has planned this September.

Alex’s Army Childhood Cancer Foundation was formed in honor of Alex Green, who was diagnosed with a Stage IV Wilms Tumor in 2009 at the young age of 5. To say Alex was a fighter is a bit of an understatement. Throughout his treatment, Alex endured 400 chemo/infusions/immunizations, 100 clinic visits, 15 ER visits, 200 inpatient admissions, 300 IV pokes, 34 total days of radiation, 32 times being put to sleep, 1 bone marrow aspirate, 100 scans (CT/Xray/PET/Echo/EKG) and 15 surgeries.

We wanted to share these words written by Jenni and Derek Green:

Over the years, our family had frequent discussions of faith, of hope – when all else seemed hopeless, of finding strength in God when we are too weak, of death, of heaven, of cancer, of fairness, of being different, of struggles in life, you name it – we talked about it. There are no words to describe how it feels as a parent to have to watch your child endure so much pain and heartache in their little innocent lives. The natural tendency as a parent is to want to fix everything, to shield and protect them from pain, danger, and heartache. Through all of this, one of the things we have learned time and time again is that we are not in control. The only comfort and joy we have been able to find, and finding this has been amazing, but it is in knowing that there IS a greater purpose for us all. While this life is nothing that I would have imagined or picked for us; we have seen so much goodness come out of this pain, we have seen firsthand how God works in His own perfect timing and ours eyes have been opened to the beautiful promises He has given to us. While we may not understand why our family has had to endure this trial, we find comfort in knowing there is a reason and that reason is for good and for a greater purpose. Our sweet Alex passed away at the age of 12 years old on June 5th, 2016 with his Mom & Dad holding his hands and by his side. Alex is the inspiration behind Alex’s Army and we are committed to helping find a cure for all Children battling Childhood Cancers.

With Faith, Hope, and Love Always,
Jenni & Derek Green

 

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June 1, 2022  by

Honoring Kate Rhoades via Kate’s Cause – our June Community Outreach Partner

This June, our Salon Khouri Community Outreach Partner is Kate’s Cause. For each haircut we do in June we will be donating $1 in support of this amazing non-profit. Kate’s Cause is doing spectacular things for children who are battling cancer. Their mission is to discover improved and less toxic treatments for the disease. Currently, one of their main focuses is making a commitment of $75,000 to fund research being done by Dr. Yael Mossé, MD, of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Mossé’s goal is to develop drugs specifically targeting MYCN, an “undruggable” driver of pediatric cancer. Doctor Mossé has gathered a team of researchers with individual experiences and ideas on attacking MYCN using new and innovative technology. Together, they will prove that the drugs they are developing are operative against most lethal pediatric cancers. Once the grant for the project is completed around Spring of 2025, they will be ready to launch a clinical trial and utilize the new medicine.  

Kate Rhoades

You can help out too in this journey! Kate’s Cause is easily accessible on AmazonSmile. AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to your favorite charitable organization. Simply search for “Kate’s Cause.”

You can even support the cause in small actions throughout your day, or RAKs – Random Acts of Kateness. Kate was a kind soul who loved to spread joy, and you can spread awareness  by doing the same. Buy coffee for someone else in line – use the opportunity to tell them about Kate! Perhaps you could leave a note in a library book or shopping cart – brighten someone’s day!

You could write a thank you card for your bus driver, crossing guard or neighbor to wish them a nice day! Maybe leave some change at a vending machine along with a RAK tag.  You never know what small things can make someone’s day 100 times better, so give it a shot, and thank you for supporting Kate’s Cause. 

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June 5, 2021  by

Kate’s Cause – Happy 10th Heavenly Birthday, Kate

Happy heavenly birthday, sweet Kate. Today, you would be celebrating turning 10 … possibly sassing your momma, definitely loving the 2021 invasion of the cicadas, and absolutely giggling that your momma is practically wearing a bee keeper suit to keep away from them. I hate that you are not here with her and your dad. I hate cancer. But I think of you daily, and think of ways to make the world better in your memory.

One of those ways is by dedicating our June Community Outreach Partner at Salon Khouri to Kate’s Cause, giving $1 from every haircut we do in June to support this amazing non-profit your parents set up. Kate’s Cause is doing great things for other kiddos battling cancer. It’s their hope and mission to find better, less toxic treatments. One of the big things they are working on now is by committing $75,000 to help fund some great research being done by Dr. Yael Mossé, MD, of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Mossé’s goal is to develop targeted drugs for MYCN, a currently “undruggable” driver of pediatric cancer, within the next four years. This amazing doctor brought together a team of complementary researchers, each with unique experience to attack MYCN with innovative new technologies. Together, they will prove that the drugs they’re developing are effective against most lethal pediatric cancers, and they will be ready to launch a clinical trial shortly after the grant is completed in Spring 2025!

Precious Kate Rhoades

We encourage you to visit Kate’s Cause to learn what you can do to help beat childhood cancer. We also ask that you perform Random Acts of Kateness to honor Kate during June (#RandomActsOfKateness).  Find a neighbor who needs assistance going to the store or who needs help with their yard work; pay for the car behind you when you go through the drive-thru; offer to pay for a fellow shoppers’ items next time you go to a store. 

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June 16, 2020  by

Kate’s Cause – Until Childhood Cancer is Extinct

Another June has arrived. Precious Kate Rhoades should have turned nine years old on June 5th this year. She should be running through her backyard smelling honeysuckle and chasing fireflies and looking out of her glass front door screen for foxes. Instead, her life was unfairly stopped short at just four and a half years young after a sudden and unexpected relapse of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

We vowed to the Rhoades family to tell her story, to do what we can to raise awareness for childhood cancer, and to perform Random Acts of Kateness in Kate’s memory. As a salon, we have also committed to donate, each June, $1 from every haircut we perform at Salon Khouri to Kate’s Cause, the foundation that Lindsay and Michael Rhoades created in Kate’s memory. Kate’s Cause is dedicated to raising awareness about childhood cancer, raising funds for less toxic treatments and ultimately a cure for childhood cancers, and giving back to the childhood cancer community. 

We encourage you to visit Kate’s Cause to learn what you can do to help beat childhood cancer. We also ask that you perform Random Acts of Kateness to honor Kate during June (#RandomActsOfKateness).  Find a neighbor who needs assistance going to the store or who needs help with their yard work; pay for the car behind you when you go through the drive-thru; offer to pay for a fellow shoppers’ items next time you go to a store. 

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June 8, 2019  by

Beauty out of the ashes – in Memory of Kate Rhoades

It doesn’t get easier. This June 5th, our dear friends, Lindsay and Mike Rhoades, wished their eight year old, sweet little girl, a happy, heavenly birthday. Kate Rhoades lived four years, but should have been here ninety more. But a sudden and rapid relapse to leukemia stole her from her family and friends when she was just four and a half years old.

There isn’t a day that goes by in the Elkhouri home where Kate Rhoades isn’t thought about or her name isn’t said. Our youngest is just a few months older than Kate. With every celebration with our little one, there is always a stinging reminder that Lindsay and Mike pass these milestones visiting Kate’s grave at Chestnut Grove Cemetery. Almost four years later, it still doesn’t seem real. It never will.

Out of the ashes is always beauty, however. Yes, the cinders still burn and always will until Lindsay and Mike are reunited with their precious Kate in heaven. But beauty is growing every day in Kate’s memory through people performing Random Acts of Kateness, to toys — lots and lots and lots of toys – being delivered to children battling cancer and through research. Last year, Kate’s Cause donated $25,000 to a young investor grant with a partnership with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. The money is helping Dr. Christian Hurtz, PhD, research and study the Cellular Pathways to Enhance Treatment in Ph-like acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the very cancer that Kate had.

We are again partnering with Kate’s Cause this June and donating $1 from every haircut at our Dulles and Fairfax locations to this amazing, local non-profit. We ask our SK Enthusiasts to perform Random Acts of Kateness — buy someone a coffee, help someone with their groceries, mow a neighbor’s lawn — then share about it with the hashtag #RandomActsOfKateness. We love seeing beauty growing from Kate. Her four short years here will leave an impact for hundreds of years to come.

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June 5, 2018  by

This little light of mine …

Kate Olivia Rhoades’ light shone brightly on all who were lucky enough to meet her. Kate was diagnosed with high risk, pre-b cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia when she was 26 months old. She underwent two and a half years of treatment, including chemo, steroids, port surgery, and spinal taps. After four months of being treatment free, Kate relapsed and was taken from this world just 15 hours after her parents, Lindsay and Mike, learned of her relapse.

Lindsay and Mike promised Kate that they would continue to fight in Kate’s honor for less toxic treatments for children battling cancer with the ultimate goal of finding a cure. They formed Kate’s Cause, a non-profit aimed at raising awareness and funds for less-toxic childhood cancer research. Another important mission of Kate’s Cause is to give back to the childhood cancer community, which they beautifully do through toy drives and activities at The Pediatric Specialists of Virginia Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders and her treatment hospital, Inova Children’s Hospital.

We are honored to be partnering once again with this amazing, local non-profit as our Community Outreach Partner for June. For every haircut we perform in June, $1 will be donated to Kate’s Cause.

Lindsay wrote a beautiful post remembering and honoring Kate today and we wanted to share it here:

Seventh Heaven

For the third year in a row, you nudged me awake right at 4:04am, the very moment your beautiful face entered this world. For the third year in a row, it’s bright and beautifully sunny outside instead of the forecasted gray and dreary. For the third year in a row, I have walked to your room and wished to the heavens I’d find you there. But for the third year in a row, you are gone on your birthday and I’m celebrating for you instead of with you.

It’s your 7th birthday today and I’ve found the words “seventh heaven” rolling around in my mind over the last few days. Not even knowing what it meant, I thought it a good title for a birthday post. It sounded right – afterall, you’re spending your 7th in heaven, so it felt to me to be a good fit.

Seventh Heaven: the highest heaven, where God and the most exalted angels dwell. A state of intense happiness; bliss.

Well now, Kate. If that doesn’t just embody who you are. If that doesn’t just describe in perfect form WHERE you are. If that doesn’t just explain in 17 words the very nature of your time here on Earth – the gift you gave those who knew you, then surely no words exist that can.

You are my seventh heaven, angel, and I love you more than words. I miss you every day and while I struggle to celebrate a day such as today when you should be bouncing off the walls from too much cake….celebrate you, I will. Your life was my life’s greatest joy and I would do it all over, no matter the outcome, just to be near you. Just to share our own personal brand of seventh heaven.

Happy 7th birthday my precious girl. I love you. I miss you. Best friends forever. I promise.

 

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May 3, 2016  by

Our May Community Outreach Partner – and Project!

Our community outreach partner for May is two fold!TT365
First, we will be donating $1 from every haircut in May to the Childhood Cancer Dream Team of Pediatric Oncologists via the Truth 365. We love what The Truth 365 is doing in the childhood cancer awareness arena and, they are funding research grants that are helping multiple childhood cancers. In April 2016, The Truth 365 funded $440,000 in grants through a Collaborative Pediatric Cancer Research Awards Program that will fund groundbreaking research for the following childhood cancers: Medulloblastoma, Neuroblastoma, High Grade Glioma, Recurrent Brain Tumors, AML & ALL, Ewing Sarcoma, Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma, and DIPG. Research for childhood cancers is severely underfunded. In fact, the National Cancer Institute spends only 4% of its federal research dollars for cancer research on childhood cancers. These children deserve more than 4%. In the past thirty years, there have only been three drugs approved by the FDA specifically formulated for childhood cancers. Most protocols being used to treat these children are outdated and were never intended to be used on children. We are blessed to be able to support The Truth 365 and, although we don’t have millions to give, the dollar we donate from your support of our salon could just be that one dollar that saves a life. Every dollar — every penny — counts.

 

KatesCauseSecond, we are also asking for your help to purchase toys for Kate’s Cause Birthday Toy Drive benefiting the children of the PSV Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders! And, this project is super easy! Kate’s Cause has put together a wish list. Simply bring a toy from this list to Salon Khouri or purchase via Amazon and ship to us at Salon Khouri at either of our locations. We will then deliver all the amazing LOVE our clients sent to The Rhoades Family before June 5th, which is Kate’s 5th birthday. Sadly, Kate lost her life to leukemia this January at just four years old, and we would like to make this toy drive the biggest and best 5th birthday present we could give to Kate! We know she will be smiling down on this project with her sweet cheeks from heaven!
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