Jacqueline Federico of HK Mission was born three months premature and in the years since has come close to death fourth separate times. Since 2001, when she graduated from the University of Toledo with a degree in communications, she has had 20 surgeries.
Her health issues read like a medical journal: fibromyalgia, a tumor on her pituitary gland, migraines, a learning disability, an artificial eye, ADHD. She lived at the University of Michigan Medical Center for three months when her stomach and small bowel became paralyzed in 2011; it was there she realized what it must be like for kids in the hospital.
Jacqueline Federico says her own experiences in the hospital led her to found HK Mission, to make hospital stays better for kids. Toledo Free Press photo by Kim Sanchez
“I was going crazy,” Federico, 39, recalled. “I was tired of looking at those double M’s because I’m a Buckeye fan. If it wasn’t for my husband (Frank) buying me a Kindle and my dog coming to see me, I would have gone nuts.
“I can’t imagine a poor little kid going through all that, being away from home, being away from parents; they have to go to work and leave the child in the hospital. I was like, man, they are away from school, away from their pets. I’ve got to do something.”
Katie Faulkner’s son, Timmy, was born with a rare disease. On June 2, the 8-year-old boy was admitted to Mercy St. Vincent Children’s Hospital in great pain and with a high fever. Doctors found an infection in his leg. Timmy was sad about missing his last week of school and beginning the summer sick. As he lay in his hospital bed, bored and restless, he got a nice surprise that lifted his spirits.
Federico, organizer and head of the HK Mission Toledo branch, had delivered 36 activity pouches filled with coloring books, crayons and pencils in May and the nurses had one for Timmy.
“He was so excited,” Faulkner said. “He looked through the bag right away and kept saying ‘Mom, look at this’ or ‘so cool.’ He was so excited by this bag and we had to pull everything out and play with it right then and there. There was a card game, an activity book, pencils, crayons, a bracelet, a ball and so much more.”
With Timmy’s rare disease, he has spent many hours in the hospital but has never received anything like the activity pouch, Faulkner said.
“It was really awesome as a mom because … there’s nothing I can do for him even in the hospital. This gave him something to be excited about and there’s no better feeling as a mom than to know your kids are excited,” Faulkner said.
The “HK” in HK Mission stands for “healing through kindness.” With the mission statement of “spreading the love of Jesus through one simple pouch,” the mission, founded in Pennsylvania, is dedicated to bringing activity pouches to children in hospitals around the country.
“With every activity pouch there is a get-well card made from a child or adult in the community, there’s a prayer card so that the mother can pass it along to another mother whose child is in the hospital, there’s a sheet with prayers on it so the mother can pray at the bedside of her child, and many toys and activities to brighten the sick child’s life during their stay in the hospital,” said Federico.
Dawn Rack of Pennsylvania started HK Mission about two years ago after her children Hunter and Kendall were bored and depressed while sick in the hospital. They had nothing to do until the Red Box Organization gave them activity boxes. Rack decided to take the idea to her church, which helped her establish HK Mission.
Rack and Federico are fraternity “brothers” at the co-ed Alpha Phi Omega. Rack saw Federico in her Boy Scout uniform for an Alpha Phi Omega alumni picture on Facebook and wondered why the scouts and HK Mission couldn’t do a project together.
Federico, mindful of her experience at UM Medical Center, decided to take on the challenge and do a project for HK Mission as a service project for Alpha Phi Omega. That one project has turned into her life’s purpose.
“I’ve got to have faith — that’s what I love about this mission. I believe this is what I was meant to do. I really do,” Federico said. “It’s fun, seeing the kids’ faces when they open the pouch and say ‘Oh my gosh! Is this all for me?’ It’s neat. I’m a very optimistic person, a very spiritual person. Even when I’m in pain, I still truck along anyways.”
Federico became a representative for direct sales company Thirty-One Gifts to buy the zipper activity pouches. She enlists the community to help her pay for the pouches and to make the get-well cards and activities that fill the pouches.
“February 26 I signed up. It was hard to get people to donate … to do fundraisers. I started paying it with my own money and own allowance. I started a Facebook page, and started taking pictures of beginning to end, of everything,” Federico said. “Next thing you know, people started asking me, ‘What’s this HK Mission?’ All of a sudden people started realizing ‘Hey, what she’s doing is real. It’s legit.’ People started coming out of the woodwork to do it. But I still need help.
“This has totally changed my life,” Federico said. “With literally almost dying four times — I coded last year — some people don’t know their purpose in life. Me, I can say I made a difference in a lot of kids’ lives. If I die, I know I will die happy because of the fact I made a difference. Not a lot of people can say that. I know it’s my purpose. I love doing it.”
There are several ways to become involved in HK Mission: go online to buy or donate a pouch; hold a fundraiser to raise the money for the pouches; donate the activities that fill up the pouch; assist in assembling the pouches; help deliver the pouches to kids at hospitals; make get well cards and more.
For more information, contact Federico at (419) 304-3670.
