When Evie Belvin arrived, parents Katie and Michael Belvin were overjoyed; however, the doctors quickly swept Evie away for additional evaluation. It was in those initial days that the Belvins’ journey with Evie began. Evie spent 227 days in the NICU before finally being released in July of 2015. Over the next few years, Evie underwent countless overnight hospital stays, procedures, surgeries, tests and outpatient visits. As her health challenges continued, Evie’s medical care became the family’s top priority. Her older sister, Charlotte, was too young to fully grasp the gravity of Evie’s situation and her parents’ need to give extra attention to her little sister.

Like so many siblings of children with special healthcare needs, Charlotte felt frustrated and overlooked at times. One day, Charlotte verbalized to her parents that she felt as if they cared about Evie more than her. Although that concern couldn’t have been further from the truth, Charlotte was indeed living in the shadow of her sister due to circumstances beyond the family’s control. Michael shared Charlotte’s worry with his good friend Chad Ray. The two discussed ways in which they might be able to help not only Charlotte, but other siblings facing similar situations within their own families.

As Michael and Chad searched online for programs to help Charlotte feel less alone, nothing appeared outside of traditional therapy. The statistics they discovered were staggering: one in five children in the US under the age of eighteen has a special healthcare need, which meant that Charlotte truly wasn’t alone. In that moment, it dawned on them that the existence of young adults who had been through Charlotte’s situation was a real possibility—the challenge was finding them.

And that’s when Michael and Chad came up with the idea for Shadow Shine, a nonprofit whose goal is to build connections between the siblings of children with special healthcare needs. They want to help siblings in the shadows feel loved and special by building bridges between families with the same dynamic. The nonprofit’s mission is to create a safe space for the siblings to have their voices heard through constant support, meaningful relationships, and leadership opportunities. “Developing something from the ground up is always tough, with no compass to guide you on the path, but it has been incredible to see the excitement people have displayed towards the idea of this organization and what it can accomplish,” states Michael.

By design, the nonprofit plans to pair a high school aged sibling mentor—the “Scout”—with a younger sibling from a different family—the “Sidekick.” A unique attribute of the program is that both the Scout and Sidekick must have siblings with special healthcare needs. “Truly an ‘I have walked in your shoes’ approach,” says Michael.

Shadow Shine is a grassroots, geography-based program. Michael and Chad want Scouts and Sidekicks to be able to easily interact and spend time together without distance being a factor. To date, the organization has relied solely on word of mouth at local schools, pediatricians’ offices, and children’s hospitals to spread the word about their brand-new nonprofit. The men enthusiastically share that they “have some incredible self-proclaimed dreamers on our board, and we could see Shadow Shine growing to help serve families across this country as time goes on!”

Charlotte and Evie Belvin