Purple Playas Foundation | Support for Children with Chronic Conditions

Real Impact. Real Smiles.

Hope for Kids with Chronic Conditions

Every child deserves joy, even on the hardest days. The Purple Playas Foundation supports families navigating rare, complex, and chronic pediatric conditions with social emotional resources, financial relief, and a community that truly cares.

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Candid Transparency Rating

Platinum

Trusted Since

2018

8 +

Supporting children & their families.

Get To Know About Us

What is the Purple Playas Foundation

The Purple Playas Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting children with chronic conditions and their families.

We believe every child deserves joy, especially in the middle of treatments, uncertainty, and long days. We provide social-emotional support resources, emergency financial assistance, and funding for pediatric complex chronic care initiatives to help children find moments of courage and joy, even on the hardest days.

Families facing pediatric chronic illness often experience overwhelming emotional, medical, and financial challenges. From hospital stays and treatment travel to missed work and mounting medical bills, the impact reaches every corner of a family’s life.

Chronic medical conditions are hard. And no family should face it alone.

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Our Impact Since 2018

3,800+

Children Supported

$754K+

Raised to Help Children With Chronic Conditions

1,790

Coping Kits Donated

97%

Reported Improved Coping With Medical Stress & Trauma

How We Support Kids with Chronic Conditions

Emotional & Social Support

We provide tools, strategies, and tips for families, child life specialists, therapists, healthcare professionals, teachers, and counselors when guiding social skills, routines and schedules, emotions, and addressing challenging behavior for children and teens with chronic conditions and their siblings.

Our resources include coping materials, books, visual supports, and practical tools designed to support children during medical experiences and daily life.

Support for Families Facing Chronic Conditions

Through our Emergency Family Relief Fund, annual events, and Holiday SMILES initiatives, we provide funding and resources to providers and families of children with chronic illness. Examples include:

Food and gas cards to support travel to treatment
Funding to camps that support children with chronic or complex illness
Bravery Prizes (e.g. crafts, toys, retail gift cards)
Durable medical equipment not funded by another means
Family fun days to connect families

Support for Pediatric Care

Purple Playas supports fellowships and scholarships in high need pediatric care with critical shortages, such as pediatric rheumatology and child life specialists.

Support That Reaches Beyond Medical Care

A complex or chronic diagnosis can affect every part of a family’s life. Purple Playas helps families navigate those challenges with practical support—from food and transportation assistance to advocacy, emergency relief, and other resources.

Since 2018, Purple Playas has provided $29,540 in gas and transportation assistance to 1,800+ families, helping remove one more barrier between families and the care they need.

Real Impact. Real Smiles.

This little girl was here for a counseling session…we’ve been working on coping skills and self-regulation for a while with her. I came into her counseling session…to introduce your coping kit. We read the book about Tucker Turtle and Puff, and I used the scented lip balm on the pinwheel like Parker showed us, to teach her how to “smell the flower and blow the pinwheel” to self-regulate and calm down when upset. She loved it! Wish I had a video of how excited she was!

Child Life Specialist

Wow! What a surprise I received today. Thank you to the Purple Playas Foundation for the sweet card and gas card gift. What a special surprise!!! It will help. Thank you very much!

Parent

I read him the book “When Purple Puff Gets Scared, Tucker Turtle Teaches Him How to Be Brave”. I couldn’t believe how much it helped Daniel feel at ease. Daniel then told me he was ready to have the surgery and be “brave”.

Mom

He was very excited about the cape and Puffy! And he was able to earn his first badge after getting his…shot yesterday! (BTW, he LOVED that Puffy has glasses just like him!)

Child Life Specialist

Thank you so much. We received the coping kit, and my kiddo loved it! He has tears in his eyes. I think the feeling just to be understood and seen was amazing for him. He loved it all. He was even excited about the ice pack and band-aid holder because he does injections.

Parent

Purple Playas PAR-TEE & Charity Golf Tournament

Current & Upcoming Events

Join us at TPC Tampa Bay for our annual Par-Tee & Charity Golf Event, including our Helicopter Golf Ball Drop.

These events help us continue providing financial support and social-emotional resources to children living with rare, complex and chronic medical conditions.