Our leaders make the difference.
Robert Cottrell
Robert Cottrell is the founder and president of HopeKids. He has five beautiful children, three girls
and two boys, ranging in age from from 14 to
21.
He started HopeKids with four children at a baseball game in September 2001. HopeKids now serves more than 1,500
children in three chapters and continues to expand. His daily inspirational email now goes out to thousands
of people every morning.
Rob has a music industry background and first began working in non-profit development and
management in 1985 with the Live Aid/Band Aid Ethiopian famine relief efforts. He continued
in nonprofit development and management and in 1996 founded an organization providing free consulting,
training and help to ministries and missionaries across the globe. Robert has been a
speaker at local and national conferences and has been a widely sought after advisor and consultant
in the area of development.
Rob first started working with children facing a life-threatening illness in 1987, working with AIDS
babies in New York City. He started his personal work granting special wishes for children more
than a decade ago with a boy named Bobby.
Rob is the author of HopeMinute, published by Summerside Press, and is also a singer, actor and musician.
He has recorded three worship CDs, performed as the lead in several community theater productions, and serves
as a Worship Leader in his local church.
Please feel free to email Rob directly at Rob@HopeKids.org
Josh Taylor
Josh Taylor heads our Minnesota chapter.
Josh Taylor has been married to his wife Carrie since 2002 and they have two young
children, one of each! Born in Sydney, Australia, Josh originally moved to
the United States in 2000 to pursue a career in golf course design.
Josh then spent the next seven years working for Tom Lehman in his golf course design company.
At the beginning of 2006 Josh and Carrie began volunteering with the HopeKids chapter in
Phoenix. By the middle of 2006 Josh and Carrie had decided to join HopeKids as
part of the HopeKids National Expansion program and move from Phoenix to Minneapolis to start
a new HopeKids chapter in the Twin Cities. The Twin Cities chapter held it’s first event
in November, 2006.
Prior to being a mom Carrie spent four years working with at-risk teens in a Charter High
School in downtown Phoenix.
C.R. Oldham
C.R. Oldham heads our Utah chapter.
C. R. and Amy Oldham, Executive Directors of the Salt Lake City chapter, are well acquainted with HopeKids,
having enjoyed the benefits of the organization during their 7-year old daughter Abby's journey with brain
cancer. "HopeKids made a great difference to us--Abby looked forward to all the events!.
She would often say things like "I hope I'm not neutropenic so I don't have to miss the movie next week."
And HopeKids helped us to make so many great
memories together as a family," recalls C. R. "Now we cherish those memories since Abby has left us. And we want to help
other families make those kinds of memories also."
So in the summer of 2008 C. R. and Amy and their 3 kids relocated to bring the hope of HopeKids to the Wasatch Front. A veteran
of the technology industry, C. R.'s experience as a "cancer dad" has instilled in him a deep compassion for families walking the
road of serious illness with their kids. Amy developed her love for kids while teaching elementary school after they were first
married. Now a homeschooling mom, she teaches Josiah, 12, Daniel, 7, and Elizabeth, 5 at their house in Layton.
Bridget Asheim, Program Manager, Phoenix
Bridget Asheim is the Program Manager for the Phoenix Chapter.
Bridget has been married to her husband, Shaun, since 1998. Shortly after they were married, they
made the move from North Dakota to Arizona to begin their new life together. They have two
little girls, Kailee and Kaia.
Bridget has a degree in Social Work and holds an Arizona Teaching Certificate. She has spent the
last 10 years serving children in the classroom and in other areas. She heard about HopeKids
through her friendship with Josh and Carrie Taylor. Her heart was instantly connected with
HopeKids and its mission. She began attending events and helping out as a volunteer. In
June 2008, she came on board full-time as Program Manager. She has been SO blessed by the kids
and families that she has met!