Rising Stars: Meet Colleen Byrne

Today we’d like to introduce you to Colleen Byrne.

Alright, thank you for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us how you got started?
In February 2017, as a freshman in high school, I lost my father to job-related cancer due to a 30-year dedication to the Kansas City Fire Department. This tragic event left me wondering where I could pick up where my dad left off in the education of his brothers in the fire department about job-related cancer, its causes, and the various precautions to take against it. Fast forward to my junior year of high school, where I learned about the Chipstarter contest created by Chip and Joanna Gaines (who I idolized as an interior design major in my junior year in college). This contest was to help kickstart dreams, and I decided maybe they could help me out with continuing my father’s legacy. My original plan was to implement a special washing machine called an extractor into my dad’s last fire station to help his immediate brothers. My goal then became to implement them into every station in Kansas City. But then I started realizing how many firefighters he had touched throughout the United States and Canada. He was a highly respected firefighte4r who would travel around teaching other fire departments through Brotherhood Instructor’s now rebranded O’Byrne Fireground Training in honor of my father). The process to submit to the contest was to make a short video (https://www.youtube.com/watchv=XTIrmnHnWw0) explaining your dream in which I made sure to get his fire station involved. I was sure I had the contest in the bag as Chip and Jo have a soft spot for firefighters. Well, I thought wrong, and yes, I am still a little salty about it. Because I also would have loved to meet Chip and Jo at their Silobration, where they present the awards for the sake of them having solidified the trajectory of my entire life as an interior designer! But anyways, I thought wrong. I did not win the contest, nor did I get an honorable mention, but many teachers at my high school (Notre Dame de Sion), friends, and family members encouraged me to do it anyway, and what better way than to file to start a non-profit. My mom and I put in many months of work under the direction of many people. As my dad’s best friend from childhood and the fire department, Mike Cashen, John Tyler, who works for the Kauffman Foundation, who we know from my grade school, and Josh Turado, who is on the fire department. We connected with Chicken N Pickle, Jill Brennan, the mother of my nanny children, and created our logos for us, Emily Holwick, at channel 9 for doing many stories to spread the word and many more along the way.

On December 31, 2018, The Byrne Out Cancer Foundation was officially established. From there, we appointed a board and began formal meetings. In August 2019, we had our first fundraiser at Chicken N Pickle. We raised enough to buy not one (our goal) but two extractors in Excelsior Springs and Claycomo, which officially finished supplying all stations in Local 42 with extractors, as Kansas City has already received a grant. I was so honored to have received the Buck O’Neill Legacy Award at Kauffman Stadium in the summer of 2019 and the GEHA Tony Dipardo Spirit Leader award at Arrowhead Stadium in the winter of 2019. Because of covid, we had to cancel a scheduled golf tournament in 2020. However, we plan to host one in the future. In August 2021, we were able to host another pickleball tournament and are still in the process of researching where we will expand to. As of now, we plan to continue to host bi-annual pickleball tournaments. For more information, you can visit our website www.byrneoutcancer.org.

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely not. The first struggle was that I was only 17 years old, and I was still very involved in academics and high school, which not only took most of my time, but I also must say I (and my mom at that) had no idea where to begin or what all would be required to start a non-profit. We are both so thankful for the help of many people at every point in the process. Another struggle was covid which caused us to take a pause. If we were more established, I’m sure we would have been able to find another way to do fundraising still. However, we chose to wait until 2021 to host another event. We have lost momentum as so many other events have come up. Our current struggle is spreading the word and integrating ourselves into cities outside our local as it is unfamiliar territory. I am, however, thankful that this has been the extent of bumps along the road, and I am so thankful for the amount of help and support I have received, as I am sure there would have been so many more hiccups without all of them.

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?
As for work for the non-profit, week-to-week life involves board meetings and lots of procurement around the time of fundraisers. We usually do raffles at our events, and each year we try to think of more exciting ways to get people involved. As for myself personally, I am still a student at UNL studying Interior Design and minoring in architecture. I recently added a minor in entrepreneurship specifically to be able to further my work for the non-profit and make it as successful as possible.

Had we love to hear about any fond memories you have from growing up?
My favorite childhood memory is of one specific time but to a place. It can’t be nailed down. Every summer since I was born, I spent at the Lake of the Ozarks at my aunt and uncle’s place and eventually our own. The fondest memories come from family dinners on the porch watching the sunset, all the times when my dad would pull my cousins and me behind our boat tubing and try to launch us off, swimming between our dock and our neighbors next door, and so many more.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.byrneoutcancer.com