Rising Stars: Meet Amie Burke of Cobb County

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amie Burke.

Hi Amie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
KIDS CARE was started with my then 8-year-old daughters’ idea to let the world know that KIDS do CARE. While driving in the car one day, I gave Jaida a homeschool assignment to make an acrostic poem with any word that she wanted. She finished quickly, and since she was in the backseat, I asked her to tell me what word she chose. She answered “KIDS”. I asked her what it stood for and she said, “Kindness In Doing Service.” (My heart skipped a beat).

Pulling over right away, we had a fantastic talk about why she chose that word. She said she wanted to start a club with kids to do nice things for other people, the way kids want to do it. I gave her a fist bump and said let’s do it. When we got home, we worked together to create the second half of our name “CARE”, which is also an acrostic poem and stands for “Connecting And Respecting Everyone.”

From Jaida’s idea in the fall of 2018, KIDS CARE was instantly born as a kids’ service club. The first service chosen by Jaida was a book drive. We collected and donated 1,116 books to our local community. After that beginning project, watching Jaida’s determination and hearing from the parents that they wanted to do more – I determined that there was definitely a need within our community to offer a way for kids of all ages to volunteer. So, I officially incorporated KIDS CARE into a nonprofit in January of 2019.

A special note I would like to add is that KIDS CARE hosts annual youth meetings where I lead the kids in an interactive discussion about compassion and service. I encourage them to share with me their skills, desires and ideas for community service. All their ideas are captured, and many are used throughout the year to create our youth community service experiences. When we first started, we typically offered one volunteer opportunity a quarter. Seven years later, we’re offering a minimum of one community service experience a month for kids of all ages to volunteer in the community. Additionally, we’re very proud and grateful to the many local businesses who love to volunteer at our bigger events, intermingling with the kids and helping create kindness for our community.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
A big challenge early on was creating an event and not knowing if anyone was truly going to show up. Sometimes that was scary when my young daughter was expecting people to show up and join us for these good deeds. I remember a few times I’d tell Jaida, “We’ll show up, and still do what we do. If friends join us that’s great. If not, you and I will still have a great day together and we’ll still make the difference that we came to make.” And to be honest, a few times there was only one other friend there. Early on we had some homeschool families who joined us and that was amazing. We kept a good attitude and kept sharing our mission and we naturally grew over time. Today, we have 318 families registered with KIDS CARE and we still maintain the same attitude – we will show up and give our best & if friends join us that is a beautiful gift!

Of course, being a small nonprofit, funding is always a full-time job that I don’t get paid for. Securing funds to support our volunteer events and pay for the supplies that engage our youth is tough. Additionally, we regularly make small and large in-kind donations to our community, which also requires a regular income along with typical nonprofit business costs.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
KIDS CARE is known in our community for being the people who are always doing nice things for others.

We recognize, honor and care for people in our own special way. Our volunteers of all ages create and gift kindness to our community year-round in both big and small acts of compassion. Always, always rooted from the heart.

A few examples of our acts of kindness include: gifting Kindness Cards to first responders, military personnel & seniors, collecting and donating new backpacks and school supplies to students in need, making and delivering no-sew blankets for first responders and sick children, playing games with seniors, food drives and food pantry service days, sidewalk chalk for first responders and seniors, handing out flowers and compliments to strangers on World Kindness Day, litter clean ups, tree plantings, and helping Keep Cobb Beautiful with their recycling events.

Our mission is to create youth community service experiences, encourage kindness and promote environmental stewardship.

In 2025, we had 233 different volunteers serve 1,125 hours in Cobb County. We’re very proud to have grown into an intergenerational volunteer group where we’ve had volunteers as young as three years old and up to 81 years old. Though our main focus is on engaging youth in community service, we do not turn down anyone because of age who wants to volunteer with our youth group. We find that many adults and seniors enjoy watching and participating with the younger kids. It energizes everyone to see kids volunteering in our community, and when kids see adults modeling our natural desires to serve – it’s a win-win!

How do you think about luck?
I’m lucky to get to stay at home and homeschool Jaida while my husband works full time for all of us. His hard work and constant support allows me to spend time running our nonprofit without pay, while simultaneously educating our daughter.

Also, Jaida and I find ourselves extremely lucky to have met and connected with so many incredibly big-hearted people along our journey. Witnessing all the volunteers and donors over the years who have stepped forward with compassion, good faith, generosity and action has been an incredible blessing we feel extremely lucky to be present for.

A BIG 4 LEAF CLOVER on our journey has been a local business called The Champion Firm, located here in Cobb County. They caught wind of us back in 2021 and have been our biggest sponsor since. Year after year, they continue to lift us to new heights with their annual support and friendship. We’re so incredibly grateful to Mr. Darl Champion for believing in us and supporting our mission. His office continues to find new ways to help boost KIDS CARE which creates a positive impact for our entire community. We’re so lucky and thankful to have their partnership!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kids-care2018.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kc2018org/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kidscare2018/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kids-care-2018/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/KIDSCARE2018
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj1AW-ShpOjhzsLSzU0OLjg
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/kids-care-marietta
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kidscare2018

Image Credits
Amie Burke, Gossett Photography, Melissa Lathrop, Kandice Nadeau.