CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Higher education students are warming the hearts of children nationwide.
A Moment of Magic Foundation is a national nonprofit working to improve children's quality of life, with a focus on those battling illnesses.
The program consists of college-age students dressing up as characters like princesses as they visit children at hospitals and schools.
The nonprofit has chapters on many campuses, including UNC Charlotte, East Carolina University and UNC-Chapel Hill.
Kylee McGrane-Zarnoch is founder and executive director of A Moment of Magic.
Life experiences motivated her to launch the nonprofit.
"When I was in high school and college, my grandparents were both hospitalized long term," McGrane-Zarnoch said. "I saw how over time their existence as a patient really affected their personhood. I wanted to do whatever I could to restore that feeling of being a person, feeling like you were part of a community and family, like you were yourself."
"So I would do all these fun things to make the hospital a less scary place, like decorate or come visit them in fun outfits before big events," she said. "My freshman year of college, they both passed away within a few weeks of each other."
McGrane-Zarnoch says A Moment of Magic was one way of continuing her grandparents' legacy.
"I felt like [the place] I could make the most impact was for kids that were hospitalized," she said. "It started with getting a dress and dressing up like a princess, then eventually we started getting as many people involved as possible."
Since starting in 2014, A Moment of Magic has reached over 125,000 children, thanks to students like Jada Sanchez.
Sanchez started volunteering for A Moment of Magic while attending East Carolina.
"I fell in love with it," she said.
Sanchez helped launch the nonprofit in the Queen City after enrolling at UNC Charlotte.
She says she was first motivated to take on a volunteer role during her high school years.
"I had a passion for leading, but I also had a passion for changing lives," Sanchez said. "A Moment of Magic encompasses both of those. I was diagnosed with type I diabetes when I was 15. [Me] wanting to go into the medical field, and being someone that was young diagnosed with something lifelong and chronic, I knew I wanted to make sure we made a difference for those experiencing things like that."
McGrane-Zarnoch recently accompanied Sanchez while visiting kids at Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte.
Sanchez read A Moment of Magic book "Your Magic" to children.
"The whole story is about figuring out what it is that makes you unique and using it as your superpower," McGrane-Zarnoch said. "When we all share who we are, exactly as we are, it can have a profound impact on the world."
McGrane-Zarnoch says it's a message everyone can learn from.
"It can be really scary to show up in the world as we are, but when we all do that, we give other people permission to be themselves too," she said. "When we can all be ourselves, there's something beautiful and special that can happen. We want to create spaces where people can be exactly who they are and make big differences in really small ways."
McGrane-Zarnoch says she's grateful to have college-aged students committed to making moments brighter for kids who need those experiences most.
"It's a very surreal feeling to have other people believe in something that you believe in this passionately, to give their time and energy and effort, to believe in themselves enough to go out and make a difference," she said. "It's something I'm never not grateful for."
"This organization started in my college dorm room and it very much started with a dress and a dream to hopefully help one child," she said. "One simple moment can have a profound impact. If we can all commit to doing something small every day, that impact can be very big."
"Small acts of kindness make a big difference," McGrane-Zarnoch said.