Emma Justus Honored Her Father by Founding Club Care

In many ways, Emma Justus is your typical 17-year-old girl. She loves hanging out with her dog, excels in school, and looks forward to for her beloved sleep-away camp each year.

What you don’t see everyday, though, is someone her age running a multi-chapter organization that gives back to children and families affected by cancer.

When she was just 11 years old, Emma’s father, David Justus, was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a terminal brain cancer. He died two years later, in 2020. Losing a parent to a fatal disease is far from easy. Even so, Emma found a way to turn her family’s sorrow into a source of hope for others.

“When he got sick, I knew that I wanted to do something to connect with those who I now had a direct bond with,” she said, explaining her inspiration behind the charity organization Club Care.

Partnering with a friend who had also lost a dad to cancer, Emma started Club Care’s first project, which involved distributing care packages to pediatric oncology patients at Mount Sinai Hospital. She spent months designing and selling fun, trendy clipboards to raise money for the packages, which included markers, Play-Doh, games, and even the clipboards themselves.

“It was just the best experience ever. It was supposed to be a one-off thing, but it was so amazing we were like, yeah, we can’t stop,” Emma said. “So we started doing more and more projects.”

And more she did, including bedroom remodelings, birthday parties, and her personal favorite, complete fashion and beauty makeovers. Emma knows first-hand just how much cancer affects the families of patients, which is why Club Care aims to focus “not only on the person who’s sick, but the entire family unit.” With this in mind, Emma collaborated with Glam4Good, a nonprofit that repurposes excess merchandise to uplift families who may need a confidence boost.

She took a patient battling medulloblastoma, along with the girl’s sister and mother, to Glam4Good’s warehouse for a day of complete makeovers. Partnering with volunteer makeup artists and hairdressers, Emma was able to give all three women a new wardrobe, fresh haircuts, and full-face glam.

“What was really amazing was seeing their confidence grow so much. I still have a connection with the girl, like I text her all the time. I took her to a Mets game a few months ago.”

Creating and maintaining these deep connections is a priority for Emma, and she’s able to seek out these relationships through Making Headway, a foundation that provides a database of families with young cancer patients. Emma communicates her various projects with the organization so that they can work together to select patients who are best suited for each activity.

Club Care has grown exponentially since its inception six years ago, with chapters that span a range of schools—not just in New York City, but Miami and Paris, too. For Emma, it’s empowering to watch this charity, and everything it stands for, expand beyond her own community.

“I wrote the manual, but [the chapters] run it independently. I love seeing what they’ve done with it, even people who I don’t know who have their own chapters. It’s really cool to see, I love it.”

With a bigger network comes a bigger financial quota, which means Emma has had to navigate a budget that demands more than what she’s used to. She has organized auctions, raffles, and bake sales, and has even applied for a few grants, “which is a horrible process,” she said with a laugh.

A lot of the Club’s funding is rooted in generous contributions from organizations that Emma has worked with in the past. The support that Club Care receives from donors is a testament to the charity’s mission, as well as Emma’s ability to foster so many meaningful, lifelong connections.

Now nearing the end of her senior year, Emma says her work with Club Care influenced what she hopes to pursue after graduating high school.

“My dream career is to be a pediatric oncology social worker,” she said. “Being able to use my own experience and professionally benefit people would be so impactful.”

Throughout the organization’s success and everything her future holds, Emma does it all with her father in mind.

“I know how proud he would be of me, and I feel like every time that I do this work, I’m getting closer with him. And that’s not only related to his cancer, but just in general, who he was. He would love seeing the impact that his legacy is able to create.”