Honoring those who embody love, passion, and fire for life.
With a focus on recognizing the strength life often requires of us, our mission is to bridge the gap between struggle and success. Through scholarship, mentorship, and community building, we uplift individuals who carry with them the courage to face their adversities head-on, discovering true growth often follows hardship and tragedy.
Amanda’s Mission is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization created to honor and memorialize the life of Amanda Grace Kish. A light like no other, Amanda was a loving and fiery spirit who lived her life to the fullest. To know her was to know passion and love embodied. Amanda lives on through the people she touched, and the Kish family is grateful to continue shining her light through Amanda’s Mission.
Our Story
On October 21st, 2022, Frances Kish received a phone call no mother should receive. Her youngest daughter, Amanda Grace, a freshman at Central Michigan University, was in a car accident. The following 36 hours were the hardest the Kish family had ever faced. As Amanda took her final breath, love and support from countless individuals across the world flooded the Kish family. The community supported Amanda’s loved ones as they grieved their loss - they showed her family that they were not alone in their pain and sadness. This love and Amanda’s own light inspired the founding of Amanda’s Mission.
On January 1st, 2024, Frances, Samantha, and Joshua Kish founded Amanda’s Mission. With support from social worker and family friend Ellen Keys, and inspired by Amanda’s own missions, the organization initially established a memorial scholarship honoring Amanda’s passion for cheerleading and dreams of higher education. In its first year, the Amanda’s Mission Memorial Scholarship awarded three scholarships to promising senior varsity cheerleaders at Theodore Roosevelt High School. Amanda’s Mission hosted a golf outing, acquiring 55 sponsorships, 250 guests, raising almost $19,000, while celebrating what would have been Amanda’s 20th birthday. Though, the Kish family’s dreams for Amanda’s Mission have grown far past the memorial scholarship program.
On December 21st, 2024, Amanda’s Mission will host the first annual Amanda’s Mission Cheer Competition. Varsity teams from across Southeast Michigan will come together for friendly competition while raising money for the AMCC scholarship fund, which will award numerous junior and senior participants for their higher education. AMCC was dreamt up by Samantha, a former cheerleader herself, and will be headed up by Bobbie Haidy, the varsity head coach of the Wyandotte Bears cheerleading team who previously coached both Samantha and Amanda. AMCC will honor Amanda’s legacy while helping other young athletes pursue their own missions in higher education.
With plans for establishing many other programs, Amanda’s Mission intends to continue expanding their scholarship programing in the years to come, but plans for further community outreach are also in the works.
Angel Parents of Michigan is a grief group currently hosted on this Facebook page with plans to meet biweekly in Wyandotte on a TBD date. This group is for the parents, guardians, and siblings of passed loved ones to gather in their grief, finding support from one another. It is through community that healing is found.
Amanda’s Mission adopted sixteen children across five families for Christmas in 2024. Working with the community to find families in need, Amanda’s Mission and our volunteers have provided Christmas presents to these families during the holiday.
It is with gratitude that Amanda’s Mission works to honor Amanda, shining her light for years to come.
Amanda Grace Kish
May 3, 2004 - October 22, 2022
