Kaila Mellos is one awesome teenager. As a child, she was diagnosed with chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis (CRMO), an extremely rare and painful autoinflammatory bone disease that often coincides with other secondary diseases such as arthritis and Crohn’s. For her Girl Scout Silver Award Project, Kaila sent personalized care packages to children and adults around the world who had been recently diagnosed with CRMO. Once the project was complete, Kaila decided to continue her newfound passion by founding Kaila’s Komfort. Since then, Kaila has not only helped more than 100 people around the world, but she’s also the recipient of December’s Los Angeles Awesome Foundation award! Kaila asks each care package recipient to fill out a survey to learn about the things they like. She then creates a custom package based on the recipient’s interests and type of treatment they are receiving. The gift baskets are filled with items like CRMO Awareness T-shirts, books and magazines, gift cards for iTunes or Amazon, coloring books and crayons, and often, a special pain relief device called “Buzzy.” Kaila says about her work, ““I hope to continue to be able to make a difference in the lives of CRMO patients by providing comfort… read more →

The Los Angeles chapter of the Awesome Foundation is pleased to announce the winner of its November prize: Reading Legacies, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing the joy of reading to young people, and to provide role modeling opportunities for at-risk youth through shared reading experiences. With nearly 85 percent of juveniles facing trial in the juvenile court system regarded as functionally illiterate, Reading Legacies believes that reading is the most fundamental skill necessary to avoid poverty and incarceration. The Awesome Foundation grant will go towards helping Reading Legacies continue its “Family Connections” program, which empowers incarcerated parents to inspire their children at home to read. Inmates and juvenile detainees are invited to share the read-aloud experience by recording a DVD, which is then sent home along with a book for other family members to share. Family Connections logged more than 1800 volunteer hours in 2014, not only inspiring the joy of reading in kids who received the DVDs, but also strengthening the crucial bonds among family members during a difficult period in their lives. Reading Legacies is currently expanding the program by collaborating with several universities, where students in criminal justice and psychology classes will participate as volunteers. For more… read more →