241. Meet the Mission: KidLinks - Noelle Tuominen
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Overview
Meet Noelle. This passionate mom realized she needed to create a community of like-minded parents after her 1-year-old endured a long ICU visit followed by a Type 1 diagnosis. She created "Type 1 Kid, Type A Mom" with other high-risk families working to keep their kids safe during the pandemic. The experience led her to KidLinks, a nonprofit bringing healing music to children through an online platform and musical performances. Learn how she moved from passionate consumer to marketing director of this mighty mission that does so much to lift joy for chronically sick kids.
💡LEARN
👆Moving from parent ➡️ volunteer ➡️ consultant ➡️ employee
👆The deep impact of music therapy on high-risk children & families
👆Common misconceptions of music therapy
👆The mission of KidLinks
Today’s Guest
Noelle Tuominen, Brand Manager, KidLinks, Founder, Type 1 Kid, Type A Mom
“You’re sitting in a hospital. I can give you balloons, I can tell you everything’s going to be better. But let’s dive deeper. Let’s just help them create that childhood magic from the start.”
Episode Transcript
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Episode highlights
Noelle’s story and journey to where she is today (2:40)
Overview of KidLinks (5:40)
Noelle’s personal connection to KidLinks and the importance of therapeutic play in hospitals (7:20)
The impact of KidLinks (10:00)
Shining a light on what families might have been facing throughout the pandemic with high risk kids (15:00)
Building digital community (17:00)
A moment throughout the pandemic where Noelle has felt the most hope (20:00)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Noelle’s life (22:00)
Noelle’s One Good Thing: Empathy by Morgan Harper Nichols (23:00)
powerful quotes
“My journey to compassionate advocacy started, when my daughter was a year old, she was diagnosed with type one diabetes. I remember being in a PICU chai, and I was six weeks pregnant and terrified.” -Noelle
“I joined a lot of insulin advocacy groups that were just fighting for affordable insulin accessible insulin, and just kind of wanted to be a part of that for my children to show them.” -Noelle
“We have a lot of programs that we're working towards, we provide music therapy for children in need. We also do music performances, when we are able to in hospitals, we provide low cost treatment programs for kids.” -Noelle
“40 years ago, our founder went into a hospital and sang to a terminally ill child. And he just created therapeutic music entertainment, which is just creating a compassionate and just magical musical moment with children. We have served 400,000 kids since then.” -Noelle
“You're sitting in a hospital, I can give you balloons, I can tell you, everything's gonna be better. But let's dive deeper. Let's just help them create that childhood magic from the start.” -Noelle
“Proximity matters, and you're able to design these programs around the pain points.” -Jon
“There is a high level of grief, you know, when you had children, you expected their childhood to be one way. And after diagnosis, it's completely different. And then add a pandemic on top of it.” -Noelle
“There is just the beauty of looking beyond the community that I think I viewed in 2020 versus now. I think there's space to say, I'm sad. And there's also space to say, we still have the power to create a community.” -Noelle
“I remember sitting in PICU. And I remember being alone, I remember feeling like, I don't have anyone else.” -Noelle
“This year, we transferred to virtual concerts for our music. So we created these Facebook Lives, and watching my children interact with that watching the comments from other people from all over just appreciating our music was incredible.” -Noelle
Empathy by Morgan Harper Nichols
“Let me
hold the door for you.
I may have never walked in your shoes,
but I can see your soles are worn,
your strength is torn
under the weight of a story
I have never lived before.
Let me hold the door for you.
After all you've walked through,
it's the least I can do.”
Connect with noelle and kidlinks
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Episode Sponsored by
Studio Selfie
Julie Confer, Becky Endicott, Jonathan McCoy & Noelle Tuominen
