Founder
Aadya Goel
Turning a childhood experience of kindness into a growing youth-led organization.
Our story
It started with something small.
A stuffed toy in a hospital room changed how one eight-year-old understood kindness—and eventually became the idea behind Cheers for Kids.
I still don’t know who handed me the stuffed toy in the hospital room.
— Aadya Goel
Aadya was eight years old and frightened, surrounded by adults discussing what would happen next. Then someone handed her a stuffed animal.
She never learned who it came from. But she remembers how something so small changed the feeling of the room. Someone who knew nothing about her had still taken the time to make a difficult day a little easier.
How could something so small matter so much?
That question stayed with her. Years later, it became Cheers for Kids.
From one moment to a growing community
Kindness became something people could do together.
Cheers for Kids began as a way for volunteers to create handmade cards and care packages for children in hospitals. What started locally has grown into a student-led community reaching hospitals and young people across the United States and internationally.
Today, volunteers create handmade cards, traditional care packages filled with activities and comfort items, and mental health packages designed to support teens and young people facing difficult moments.
4,000+Handmade Cards
3,000+Care Packages
900+Mental Health Packages
5Countries
The work behind the smiles
Service is more than the final delivery.
The pictures at the end of a project can be heartwarming. The work behind them is often less visible: emails, hospital guidelines, volunteer coordination, fundraising, supplies, last-minute cancellations, and plans that have to be rebuilt.
That experience shaped a principle that continues to guide Cheers for Kids today:
“Caring about a patient is a feeling; service is the work required to make that care reach a child.”
Cheers for Kids exists to do that work—to turn compassion into something tangible that can actually reach a child or young person who needs it.
Leadership
Student-led, with clear ownership.
Cheers for Kids is founded and led by Aadya Goel, supported by a leadership team responsible for volunteer engagement, operations, social media, and outreach.
Leadership Team
Geetanjali Prakash
Head of Volunteer Engagement
Saachi More
Head of Operations
Anushka Tekade
Head of Social Media
Nishi Jayasundra
Head of Outreach
Recognition
Service recognized beyond our own community.
Cheers for Kids and Aadya Goel received recognition from the Massachusetts Governor and an Official Citation from the Massachusetts Senate in recognition of the organization’s service and impact.
The recognition is meaningful not as an endpoint, but as encouragement to keep building the work behind every card, care package, volunteer event, and hospital delivery.
Massachusetts GovernorRecognition for Cheers for Kids
Massachusetts SenateOfficial Citation
Nonprofit statusRegistered 501(c)(3) organization
What guides us
The values behind the work.
Compassion
We begin by thinking about what children, teens, and families may be experiencing.
Thoughtfulness
We want what we create to be appropriate, useful, and designed with real needs in mind.
Youth Leadership
Young people are not just participants in Cheers for Kids. They help lead it.
Follow-through
Kind intentions matter most when they are turned into consistent, dependable action.
Be part of the story
Help turn another small act into something meaningful.
Make cards, volunteer, organize an event, start a chapter, or support the next round of care and mental health packages.