A 16-year-old from Braintree has turned a painful family memory into a nonprofit that now reaches hospitalized children across the country and overseas. Tatiana Calvillo, a student at Thayer Academy, founded Little Heroes Foundation in April after watching her sister go through a hospital stay that left her searching for a way to help kids in similar situations.
Calvillo created the student-led nonprofit to support hospitalized pediatric patients, according to Boston 25 News. She developed the idea for comfort kits for children in local hospitals after her sister's stay, which she said left her feeling hopeless and made her start thinking about how she could help. In the months since, the effort has expanded well beyond Massachusetts: the outlet reports Little Heroes Foundation now has 19 chapters across the United States, plus chapters in France and Uganda.
Kits Built Around What Kids Actually Want
Volunteers with the foundation assemble comfort kits using donations and send patient cards along with them every month, per the same report. The contents shift from month to month, with coloring books, stickers, small toys, mini squishies and seasonal items like Halloween coloring books rotating through the boxes. Calvillo said the variety matters because many of the patients receiving kits are the same children returning again and again.
Calvillo said she wants young people, not adults, steering the organization, so that students feel genuine compassion when they deliver the kits themselves. Fellow Thayer Academy student Brynn Hso, who began volunteering with Little Heroes Foundation after her own sister was diagnosed with cancer in 2025, said taking part in the organization has been eye-opening. Hso told the outlet she hopes the kits offer families brief relief and enjoyable moments during difficult hospital stays.
A Wider Pattern of Teen-Led Hospital Giving
Calvillo and Hsu said they hope their work encourages other young people to help others, and Calvillo added that she wants students to realize they can make a real impact. Little Heroes Foundation isn't alone in that mission. In suburban Chicago, a group of Naperville North High School students built a similar effort called Kits4Kids, which started with $1,000 raised from family and friends and has since grown to more than 1,000 care packages worth over $30,000 delivered to seven hospitals and health care centers, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Closer to home, a Fitchburg nonprofit called Empower Children for Success recently assembled 350 calming kits for children and families across North Central Massachusetts, part of a broader push to help kids manage stress and build resilience, as reported by the Sentinel and Enterprise. And in New Jersey, 15-year-old Giuliana Demma founded G's Giving Gowns at age 11 after learning to sew at summer camp; her group has since donated 2,400 gowns and 243 port shirts to hospitals in 46 states and multiple countries, according to New Jersey Monthly.
Calvillo founded Little Heroes Foundation after her sister's hospital stay, and Hso hopes the kits offer families brief relief and enjoyable moments during difficult hospital stays.
