In the late-70's, Cris Embleton of Spokane, Washington, read a letter that would change her life...

and eventually the lives of thousands of children worldwide. Naomi Bronstein, who had

a homesick child in Guatemala had written to an adoption agency about 5-year-old Heidi,

a Guatemalan child who was dying because the open-heart surgery she needed was not available

available for her there. The letter struck a chord in Cris. Several years before, Cris and her husband, Gary, had lost their own adopted infant daughter, Lori Jo, to an illness that could have been cured if the medicine she needed had been available in her native land, Korea. Without hesitation, Cris contacted Naomi and suggested they try bringing the child to Washington. She said yes, and Heidi became HTC's first success story.

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While Naomi was in Washington, Cris, Naomi, and Maureen O'Keefe (who worked with children in Korea) sat down in the pleasant surroundings of a local park to discuss their shared common passion for helping children and to explore the idea of providing the same care to other children. The Children's Hospital and Dr. Isamu Kawabori in Seattle donated to Heidi's surgery. They were encouraged to see if other children could be helped. Taking it one child at a time, they found that doctors and hospital administrators that were willing to be generous.  Before long, they had provided care for 10 different children.

 

In the years that following, the group in Spokane grew to include other areas of the country.  Chapters formed in the Midwest and East Coast.  Cris was joined in her effort to expand the organization by Dr. Wes Allen, a pediatric cardiologist, who lead the first medical teams to others countries.  Dr.  Allen became a strong advocate in the medical community and was a source of encouragement to those providing leadership to the growing organization.

 

Over the years, the national, non-profit organization expanded 13 chapters across the United States, all with the 

mission of providing medical care to needy children from the U.S. and around the world. Foreign children are treated by volunteer medical teams in their homeland, and other children are flown to the United States for specialized care. HTC also provides special programs and clinics for American children who are not eligible for insurance.

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Financial support for the organization comes from donations.  Medical care, airfares and supplies for children are donated by local hospital, the doctors, and other volunteers and donors.

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Medical teams consisting of doctors, nurses, and other professionals go abroad several times a year to provide surgery and other procedures now consisting of more than 100 countries worldwide.  These team pay their own airfare and use their vacation time for the opportunity of spending up to 12 hours a day operating in cramped quarters under relatively primitive conditions.  At the same time, surgeons work alongside local healthcare professionals to share best practices and provide specialized training.

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Each of these children is a miracle with their own story to tell.  As Cris Embleton would say, "Lori Jo was simply the first pebble in the pond.  Since then, many others have added their pebbles to make the organization what it is today."

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Story Credit:  Rebecca Snyders, former HTC National Vice President and chapter director. 

Story published in 2004 in honor of the 25 year anniversary of Healing the Children

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In 1995, due to the growth of the organization and the need for centralized headquarters, HTC hired its National Administration Carol Borneman, who lives in Spokane, to lead this effort.  Carol supports all the chapters, volunteers, donors, and often is the clearing house for many issues regarding children's medical condition, travel situations, records, finances, and data collection.​​

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In 2005, Cris Embleton moved to California and founded her second non-profit organization with a similar yet, different mission.  Mending Kids International which provides free life-saving surgical care to sick children worldwide by deploying volunteer medical teams and supporting communities to become medically self-sustaining.

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Over the years, Healing the Children's work evolved from bringing children to the US for critical medical care, to traveling to countries worldwide to provide weeklong surgical and non-surgical services.  This provided the volunteers with the ability to experience medical care in a developing country, help more children, engage with families and communities to strengthen health care, education, and systems, and train local health care providers. 

 

In 2013, Healing the Children went through an organizational restructure with the goal to ensure more children could access quality donated medical care.  The chapters, which at that time were all independent nonprofits, with their own 501 (c) 3, own audit, and own board of directors, were given the opportunity to become "branches" of the National Office.  We now have 4 chapters (Northeast, New Jersey, Florida/Georgia, and Michigan/Ohio) who operate as independents and 11 branch chapters who are supported through the umbrella of the National Office.  This restructure allowed the smaller chapters (all led by volunteers) to remain viable by reducing costs, such as auditing fees.  Since that time, three new branch chapters have formed Northern CA, Southern CA, and Texas.  In addition, the National Office elevated the role of its Executive Committee to explore strategic initiatives, administrative resources, unique opportunities, new medical technologies, and chapter support. 

 

The 2020, COVID-19 pandemic brought HTC's operations to a near halt, as the pandemic did for so many organizations.  Our outbound teams and inbound program closed.  Since the majority of our chapters are led by volunteers who work from home, amazingly, we did not lose one chapter!  Several chapters found creative ways to engage with local communities, such as the New Jersey Chapter which created Hope and Healing bags of basic supply needs to distribute at local shelters or community centers.  Our Wisconsin Chapter supported backpacks for children in Mexico, and other chapters provided equipment for children with physical disabilities.

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As we looked beyond 2020, new ways to support medical communities began to evolve.  A partnership with OhanaOne (coincidently led by Marchelle Sellers, who worked for Mending Kids International from 2009 to 2015) engaged multiple chapters with the use of Smart Glasses (Vuzix) to enable our surgeons to help train or assist with a surgeon "real time" in a developing country. Another project led by our Florida/Georgia Chapter was to partner with a rural community in Nigeria (which had no medical clinic) to offer virtual health clinics very quarter.

 

In 2026, Healing the Children supports 11 branch chapters and 4 affiliated (independent) chapters from all corners of the US.  In 2025, our amazing volunteers provided quality medical care for 4,048 children from 14 countries and the US.  Our work and mission are realized by the passion, commitment, vision, and dedication of hundreds of volunteers and donors annually.​ Since 1979, Healing the Children has provided care to 324,854 children in the US and abroad.   

 

This is the impact on the many lives altered by Healing the Children and it's hundreds of dedicated volunteers.