A stay in the hospital isn’t pleasant for anyone, but when the patient is a child, the sterilized minutes can be agonizing.  When J.W. Brown, a Dallas-based energy finance advisor, and the president of the KidLinks Foundation, met the founder of Hugworks (née the Celebration Shop) more than 10 years ago, he knew he wanted to help.

“Hugworks entertains the kids in the hospital using music therapy and they have found it makes a huge difference with the kids,” Brown says.

“They started out kind of being hospital-related songs for the kids who were patients.  I became interested when my girls were growing up because I would pop a Hugworks cassette in when they were sick and you could tell it really made a difference.”

The music produced by Hugworks became more sophisticated thanks to an early association with Noel Paul Stookey of the singing group Peter, Paul and Mary.  With Stookey writing the songs and singing with Jim Newton, Hugworks began to take off in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but it needed funding.

“I grabbed five or six guys I knew from being in the oil and gas business and I took them to lunch and then over to Children’s Medical in Dallas and we watched Jim and Paul entertain and watched their interaction with the kids and what a difference it made,” Brown says.  “Once they saw that, they knew we had to do something, and that’s the way KidLinks started.  We started out with a golf tournament like everybody else.  Our primary beneficiaries from the very beginning have been Hugworks and Children’s Medical Center in Dallas and Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth. Hugworks performs at these two DFW area hospitals which have active Musical Therapy Departments.

The eight KidLinks Energy Golf Classic was held October 27, 2008.

The Eighth Annual KidLinks Energy Golf Classic was held October 27, 2008.  With a limited field of sponsors to accelerate the speed of play, the contributions made possible from the event exceeded $320,000.  In addition to a high-quality tournament with numerous give-aways and a great energy networking event, participants experience the satisfaction of seeing material financial support going to various children support groups.  Since inception, more than $1.8 million has been given away by the KidLinks Foundation.

A substancial amount of the money KidLinks raises goes to Hugworks and has helped increase the amount of work the organization can do for sick children.  Hugworks travels all over the U.S. to the hospitals and children’s camps.  It also has a range of CDs available for children of all ages and is working on a new DVD.

The KidLinks Foundation doesn’t have any aspirations to get involved in anything else.  The main focal point is to try to constantly add to what we can to let Hugworks, the Hospitals and the kid focused agencies do what they do.  They do an unbelievable job of helping kids.