PALM BAY, FLORIDA – A Palm Bay couple and local volunteers delivered more than 300 care packages to children and families facing pediatric cancer and other serious illnesses across Central Florida.
Jason Collins and his wife, Brittany, loaded the completed Captain Poodaman Care Packages into a box truck on Wednesday, Sept. 2, and traveled from Palm Bay to Orlando. The Home Depot on Malabar Road donated the truck for the day.
The couple delivered packages to Nemours Children’s Health, AdventHealth for Children and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Florida. Another 22 packages for Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children were being coordinated for delivery later in the week.
A Palm Bay community packs more than 300 care packages
The deliveries followed a daylong volunteer event Tuesday at the Ted Whitlock Community Center in Palm Bay. About 15 to 20 volunteers assembled and personalized more than 300 packages with comfort items, activities and messages of encouragement.
Collins, a Palm Bay resident and childhood cancer advocate, serves as director of communications and external relations for Forever Captain Poodaman, the Ahmad Butler Foundation. He coordinated the local project, including community partnerships, donated items, volunteers and hospital deliveries.
“This started with the goal of bringing one of the Ahmad Butler Foundation’s most meaningful programs to children and families here in Central Florida, but the Palm Bay community truly made it happen,” Collins said. “Businesses donated items and services, volunteers gave their time, and people throughout the community stepped forward to help. Brittany and I were proud to deliver what so many people came together to create.”
Each package included a handwritten message reminding a child that they are seen, they matter and someone is thinking of them. Volunteers also packed Captain Poodaman Kindness Missions, superhero capes, comic books, toys, books, blankets, sensory items, snacks and other comfort items.
Approximately 100 handmade blankets came from Children’s Blankets of Love, a North Carolina nonprofit serving children facing serious illnesses and other difficult circumstances. Mrs. Brevard County Colleen Jamieson collected 100 new children’s books for the project. The City of Palm Bay provided the community center for the packing event.
Palm Bay care packages reach Orlando hospitals
Photos from the delivery show the Collinses arriving at Nemours with carts filled with boxes, unloading the donated truck at AdventHealth for Children and presenting packages at Ronald McDonald House. Hospital staff and representatives joined them at each stop as the boxes were brought inside.
The packages are designed to offer comfort, encouragement and what the foundation calls a “wonderful distraction” during long or difficult hospital days.
Honoring Ahmad “Captain Poodaman” Butler
The care package program honors Ahmad “Captain Poodaman” Butler, whose courage, imagination and personality inspired the Ahmad Butler Foundation. The organization supports children and families affected by pediatric cancer and other life-threatening illnesses through comfort, advocacy, family support and meaningful moments.
The Palm Bay project coincided with Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and showed how local volunteers, businesses and organizations could combine small contributions into hundreds of personal deliveries for Central Florida children.
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