The Zoe Foundation

10.01.19

Kim Hammonds shares the transformative impact of painting and art therapy in her life when she was in chemotherapy, and how it led her to create the Zoe Foundation.

Summary:

Kim Hammonds shares the transformative impact of painting and art therapy in her life when she was in chemotherapy, and how it led her to create the Zoe Foundation.

Chemotherapy can be incredibly debilitating and demoralizing. Kim talks about how painting and art therapy helped transform one of life’s most challenging experiences.

Keith_Krach

Keith Krach

You started a charity, the Zoe Foundation, named after your beautiful 18-year-old daughter. Tell us about that.

Kim Hammonds

So I, during this whole experience, so Zoe was two. And I started painting during chemotherapy. So you'd be sitting there for four to eight hours, attached to all these things, and monitoring everything about what's going on with you and people around you are super sick. And I remember just saying to my husband it's like, what are we gonna do here all day, for 48 hours? Because you can't really walk around or anything like that. And, so this art student volunteer kind of wheel this art cart by and I'm like, "How do I sign up for this?"

So, the nurse came over and, so I started painting with this wonderful woman named Diane, every single time I went to chemotherapy. So I went every other week for eight times. And I would just start painting with her. And, when I finished chemotherapy, by the end of it, I was actually quite sick, but I remember saying to my husband, it's like, "We're gonna replicate this whole thing that I've done." It was just the coolest thing on the planet, I would look forward to going there, which was crazy. And it was a fun outlet. So, I bought the book, How to Set up a Foundation for Dummies. So I bought that book, and then we just founded the Zoe Foundation, shortly thereafter. And the whole purpose is to fund our programs for cancer patients, which is exactly what I did.
Keith_Krach

Keith Krach

And I can only imagine how many people that that impacted.

Kim Hammonds

So we've helped a lot of people.

Kim Hammonds

So we've helped a lot of people.
Keith_Krach

Keith Krach

I bet, I bet.