Hi! I’m Julie Young. I am excited to share with you a little about myself and the journey my family has been on that led to the foundation of Coleson’s F.R.O.G. I am married to Regi Young and we are a blended family with two daughters, Makynzi and Mackenzie. Yes, we have two daughters with the same name! In 2007, we had our bouncing baby boy, Coleson.

In December 2009, we traveled to Tennessee for a family vacation when Coleson started showing signs that something was wrong. We took him to two different doctors while on vacation and neither knew what was going on. We decided to end our vacation and return to Fort Worth so we could take him to Cook Children’s Hospital. Coleson under went a CT scan at Cook’s. Afterwards, we were faced with the news no parent wants to hear. Our sweet baby boy, at the age of two, had a brain tumor.

Soon after, praise the Lord, they were able to remove this tumor which was then followed by seven weeks of Proton Radiation at M.D. Anderson in Houston. I am blessed to say Coleson is now a very active boy that we can hardly keep up with!

During this time of trial, frog themes were constantly in our path. Nothing happens by chance. God had a plan all along with these frogs. We soon found out that frog stood for Fully Rely On God. Once I discovered that, I knew we were suppose to do something for families coping with childhood cancer and to incorporate frogs. In the summer of 2010, we were led to start Coleson’s F.R.O.G. (Fully Relying On God). We now get the chance to give back, but most of all give hope to these families when they need it most.

We are so excited with what God has already done through our foundation and can’t wait to see what He has in store for us in the years to come!

Update: What has the Lord been doing since we felt called to start Coleson’s FROG? We began helping families from Cook Children’s that had a child fighting cancer. This allowed us to help them financially and begin to build relationships with them. We quickly realized that although meeting their physical needs was great, these families needed so much more than that!! In 2013, we started renting facilities out to host camps. This allowed for these families to get some much need rest, fun and for us to show them God’s love. For the next 4 years, we hosted Family FROG Camps. In the summer of 2015, I felt the Lord speaking to me. He was telling me that one day we would own a camp. I thought.. WHAT IN THE WORLD, LORD?!? I don’t know anything about owning a camp. I decided to not say anything to anyone, just to wait and pr ay. I fully expected that to happen once Coleson was grown. A few days later, Regi and I were talking and out of no where he says… I think the Lord is calling us to own a camp one day. I immediately started crying. He of course was thinking what did I say wrong? I then explained to him that the Lord had been showing me the same thing. Shortly after that, the Lord gently asked me “why are you not using what I have already provided you with?” My husband and I owned 14 acres in Keller. We had plenty of room and activities to do our first FROG Teen camp. I immediately reached out to Pastor Jeffery, whom would later become the camp director, to see if he would be interested in leading this camp. He quickly said yes. Soon after the submission to this, Regi and I were contacted by the City of Fort Worth asking to buy 2 acres from us and tear down an old house. After some negotiating, we came to an agreement that was in our favor.

We then decided we should take that money and put it toward some property for a camp later on down the road. Every place we looked had closing doors. One day, Regi was at a customers house on Staree Lane. The customer asked how Coleson was and the non-profit. Regi was able to share what the Lord was doing in the ministry and about the future camp. He then told Regi about a piece of property at the end of Staree for sale. To be honest, just base off of what we were told we didn’t think it was the place. After a few talks about it, Regi said why don’t we just go take a look at it.

We soon had our relator James Blain setting up a time for us to meet the owner. We pulled on to the property and I could not believe my eyes!! It was everything I had envisioned for a camp. It was 22 acres in the middle of Saginaw. It had a pond full of fish, a beautiful lodge styled house, a swimming pool, a playground and potential for so much more!! It was the perfect fit!

In the spring of 2016, the Lord used the the sell of our property to allow us to put down what was needed to buy the Staree property. Since then we have hosted several camps for families who have a child that has fought cancer. To date, we have been able to do junior camps for the diagnosed kid and siblings, teen camps and mom camps. Along with that, we have allowed Coleson’s FROG families to pick a weekend to stay out at camp and have provided them with many other fun events!

Coleson’s FROG has been able to make such an impact on theses families. We are so grateful to our supporters that have helped us get to where we are today!