Helping Kellie & Dustin with medical expenses

Kellie Walker has dedicated her life to helping others. As a college student she studied school counseling because she wanted to help children. As executive director of the Children’s Center of the Cumberlands, she has spent the past nine years advocating for her community’s children. When she and her husband, Dustin, lost their son, Kip, last year, she turned overwhelming grief into yet another opportunity to help others by founding Kip’s Kloset, a non-profit effort to collect clothing, coats and anything else needed for children of the community who sometimes come to the Center with just the clothing on their backs.

Kellie has always embodied a selfless approach of putting others ahead of herself. When the local Chamber of Commerce organized a small fundraiser on behalf of herself and another Chamber member who were simultaneously battling cancer, she insisted that her portion of the funds raised go to the other gentleman. During one of her several hospital stays in 2020, she learned that her colleagues at the Children’s Center had joined a local business for an auction-telethon to raise funds for the center’s Angel Tree program, which helps ensure that abused and neglected children have a merry Christmas. Kellie called from her hospital bed to have pizzas delivered to the auction studio so that the volunteers would be fed.

These are just two of the most recent examples of Kellie’s heart for her community and for others. But perhaps the biggest example of her humble and giving nature is her embodiment of the Christian tenets of prayer and support for her fellow man. In the past year, Kellie has endured more than most of us could bear — first the loss of her son, quickly followed by a devastating rare cancer diagnosis that required lengthy hospital stays and multiple surgeries. Through it all, she has continued to reach out to her friends, coworkers and other members of the community — through the same random text messages, notes in the mail and other acts of encouragement — treating their trials as more important than her own. None who know Kellie have been surprised by her approach to this dark time; it’s just who she is, and who she has always been. To know Kellie Walker is to experience the love of Christ through humankind.

Now it is our turn to help Kellie. Sadly, she recently learned that her sarcoma has returned with a renewed aggression. Surgery is no longer an option. Kellie will begin chemotherapy treatments and focus on her family — her husband, Dustin, and their two daughters. The Walkers have already amassed significant medical bills from Kellie’s fight, and more will follow. They’re not asking for help; it’s not who they are. But all of us who have experienced Kellie’s love and encouragement in our lives want to pay it back. During this extremely difficult and frightening time, we want to be sure Kellie and Dustin are able to focus on being together with their precious daughters without worrying about bills and other expenses. It is the least we can do for someone who has done so much for everyone else.