Healing through imagination, college students spread joy
October 2025
A young girl is happy to see princesses from A Moment of Magic at the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum on James Madison University’s campus. (photos courtesy A Moment of Magic)
by Lydia Weaver, Contributing Writer
Abigail Knesh is all too familiar with the woes that frequent hospital stays bring. For her and thousands of other children and young adults, small moments can have a lasting impact.
Earlier this year, Knesh was visited by volunteers with James Madison University’s A Moment of Magic. The nonprofit organization has more than 25 chapters on college campuses nationwide. It is dedicated to bringing imagination, healing and compassion to hospitalized and medically vulnerable children through character visits, play-based connection, interactive workshops and mental health support. Children might be visited by princesses, superheroes or even literary characters — all portrayed by college students.
“Being a teen who is frequently dealing with doctors’ appointments and hospital trips, companies like A Moment of Magic are truly what make each day a little less bland,” Knesh says. “I got to meet them when I was hospitalized at VCU, and I have truly never felt more joy in a hospital in my life.”
Whether it’s bedside in a hospital room, at a cancer research fundraiser or a community outreach event, AMoM’s personal interaction often is the key for lending positivity to a child’s medical experience. Knesh says even though she was an older patient in terms of pediatric care at the time, AMoM’s imagination- filled visit to her was still special.
It was even more so, perhaps, after having played Elsa in her high school’s musical rendition of the Disney classic. Because of that, she could appreciate the volunteers’ performance in a different way than the younger children.
JMU’s Cassidy Frank and Kayla Coppage visit with Abigail Knesh in her hospital room at VCU.
“Getting to make funny faces and having them play along with their characters and never break [from character] was really fun,” says Knesh, now a college freshman, “especially since kids my age don’t get those kinds of experiences very often.”
In Virginia, there are three AMoM chapters that make regular visits to bring joy to children in hospitals and community spaces. JMU’s chapter is the most established and has made the most visits, even visiting other locations to offer guidance, chapter president Kayla Coppage says. The volunteers are most often found in pediatric oncology units, singing songs, coloring, giving hugs and playing games.
In Coppage’s time with the organization, the JMU chapter has visited hospitals as far away as Virginia Beach and Baltimore. Kylee McGrane-Zarnoch, AMoM’s national founder and executive director, praises the Shenandoah Valley volunteers’ time commitment and dedication to the cause.
“They are incredible,” McGrane-Zarnoch says. “I get to work with [JMU] quite a lot. Their energy and their passion for the mission and the individual families is so palpable. It’s really special. They’re so active in the community and they care so much about who they’re serving. That’s the embodiment of the mission. If I could have 50 JMU chapters, we would be all set.”
Kylee McGrane-Zarnoch, AMoM founder and executive director, brings joy to pediatric patients as an ice queen.
BEHIND THE MAGIC
McGrane-Zarnoch founded AMoM as a college student in 2014, and says the program grew organically from there. From the first hospital visit in New York, peers were eager to join and get involved.
“By making service work look like something that people could get involved in really easily — it just had this organic appeal,” McGrane-Zarnoch says. “It’s not necessarily a really difficult thing to put on a princess costume and go to a children’s hospital, but for a child, that might be the thing that changes the trajectory of their week, the thing that really makes the difference in their treatment journey.
“Then the next time they go to the hospital, they might not just have feelings of anxiety or being scared and overwhelmed, they might have a positive association.”
Despite its growth and larger numbers today, the organization wants to keep the experience of those visited consistent regardless of location. McGrane-Zarnoch says they are on track to impact more than 20,000 children nationwide this year. Training volunteers is one of the biggest factors in ensuring equal experiences for all, she explains.
From the fun aspects of acting and character portrayal to the serious lessons regarding privacy laws or coping with trauma, AMoM’s training is comprehensive. Each chapter president receives in-person training in New York, and then they teach new chapter members at their schools.
“No matter how big we get, we’re still a small organization,” McGrane-Zarnoch says. “We’re a close-knit community, and that’s really tied together by the mission and who we’re doing it for.”
Kayla Coppage and Adley Gordon at CureFest 2024.
One challenge is staying in character through emotional moments. Volunteers are taught coping mechanisms for their own mental health, but they also learn how to thoughtfully answer tough questions, respond to sensitive topics and be respectful of situations without breaking character.
“I like to remember that if I feel like I’m going to cry, I’m taking attention away from that child,” says Cassidy Frank, JMU’s magic experience coordinator. “This is supposed to be a happy moment. It’s not about me, it’s about them. If we’re going to have emotions, we try to do it away from the visit.”
Along with the characters, each visit includes volunteers not in costume known as Magic Makers. These volunteers help the characters get ready, take pictures, coordinate the meetings upon arrival and handle questions about the program so character volunteers can focus on role-playing for the children. Sometimes, the Magic Makers are awaiting their own future character assignments.
“We have over 100 [characters] on a national level,” Coppage says. “But at our chapter, we probably have 10 to 15.” That number includes some members playing multiple roles, like Coppage and Frank, who both have three options, and some shared roles, making duplicate availability for visits.
To be assigned a character to portray, before any training begins, members must submit an audition, including pictures and voice samples of accents. The national team selects what character they think may be the best fit, and the local chapter approves the casting decisions. Assignments can be from Disney and Pixar movies, Marvel superhero characters, or even popular books. Then, students must fundraise to cover the costs of their costumes.
“I want you to be so good at what you do that you aren’t someone who’s trying to be [a princess], you just are that person,” McGrane-Zarnoch says. “Lead with empathy. So, if [a princess] would comfort that child in that moment, that’s what you should do.”
JMU’s AMoM chapter members with a young girl at CureFest in Washington, D.C.
CHARACTERS WHO CARE
Coppage and Frank have been volunteering and portraying characters with AMoM since their first year on campus. Both seniors now, they remain committed and continue to make time for weekly meetings and planning responsibilities as part of the executive board.
All the traveling, training and practicing seem minor when they describe some of the magical moments they’ve experienced. Frank says she tells her family that being involved in the program is the best thing she’s ever done.
“I met a little boy in the hospital while he was getting his chemotherapy treatment,” she says. “I had met him previously as [another character], but [this time] we sat with him the whole time he was getting [treated]. We played charades, we sang songs, we read books, we played with his sister. We were at that one [visit] for an hour and a half. Time had kind of flown by. He told me that was his last treatment, and he was glad he got to see us. I think of him all the time.”
While dressed as a fairy, Cassidy Frank interacts with a young patient.
Coppage recalls interacting with Adley Gordon, a young girl who was playing by herself at CureFest USA, an annual festival for childhood cancer patients in Washington, D.C. Adley was diagnosed with leukemia in 2022, just two weeks before her second birthday. “We really connected. We played so loud and so long that we got asked to move,” Coppage says.
For over a year now, Adley has been cancer free, and her parents, Chad and Kira Gordon, say they’ve found a lifelong friend in Coppage.
“Her gifts and kind messages lifted us up and gave us smiles when all we wanted to do was cry,” the parents say in a statement to AMoM. “We cannot thank Kayla and A Moment of Magic JMU enough. We are blessed to be a part of their amazing family, and they will always be a part of Adley’s adventure.”
Being the reason a child smiles isn’t just rewarding work, it’s important work. Joy is known to bring healing, and that can stem from even small interactions in bleak situations. As Coppage says, “Everyone can use a little magic.”
Kayla Coppage makes children smile as a candy racer character.
For more information, visit amomentofmagic.org.