Looking back on Billy’s life it is clear to us that what brought him the most joy was life experiences. Sounds simple right? Well, unfortunately, we know firsthand that when you have a child with chronic medical conditions planning fun events is not at the top of the priority list – from a physical, financial or time management standpoint. So, from the very start our vision was to help bring those special moments to children facing a chronic illness in ways that took that burden off the families and allowed them to just enjoy their children’s happiness and joy.

In 2016, before we were officially incorporated, we started donating Build‐a‐Bear outfits to local hospitals for NICU babies and their families that would be spending their first Halloween together in the NICU. We started this because when Billy was born at 23 weeks, he spent his first Halloween in the NICU. He was 1.5 pounds and the only thing that would fit him was a Build‐a‐Bear Halloween costume. Seeing him in his first Halloween costume was such a ‘normal’ and needed experience for us as a family. And an experience we wanted to start providing for other families. Year after year, we continued to touch more families and the joy just spread as others soon wanted to participate! This past year, we were able to help provide costumes to 6 local hospitals and over 150 families.  

After the passing of our son in 2018, we knew the best way to honor him was to help other children with chronic medical conditions have positive and inclusive life experiences. We knew there were so many people that loved Lil’ Bill and felt the same way about this cause and so, in July of 2019 we established Live Like Little Bill, Inc, a 501c3 non‐profit dedicated to this mission.  Our main goal ‐ although there are many! –  is to take care of the planning, time, effort, and financial responsibility of creating events and experiences so that families can just show up and enjoy themselves. Because we know that just showing up can be a journey itself.  

If you feel passionately about our mission as we do, we hope you will consider donating or getting involved. We believe together we can bring special moments and laughter to many families in our community ‐ And we know that laughter is the universal language that no one better embodied than Billy himself.