Our Story
Heroes Helping Heroes is a non-profit organization that empowers orphans, foster, adopted, and other vulnerable children by creating vital mentor relationships and providing meaningful life experiences and skills training that ultimately enhance their spiritual and emotional wellness and promote their joyful futures.
Serving the true heroes and planting the seed
Heroes Helping Heroes was founded in 2000 by Floyd “Ski” H. Chilton with a focus on the suffering of orphans and vulnerable children in Africa. It all began after Ski traveled to the African town of Mosi during the height of the AIDS outbreak with Samaritan’s Feet to provide medicine and shoes. In a city of 300,000 people, 60,000-70,000 were orphan children whose parents died from AIDS. When Ski witnessed 500 of these orphaned children in a barbed wire fence, many under the age of two, he felt a responsibility to do something. He created Heroes Helping Heroes, in collaboration with his son, to raise money to build houses for the orphans he met.
Meanwhile, in the small town of King, North Carolina, a group at Quaker Gap Baptist Church began a ministry to encourage other church members to foster or adopt children in need of loving homes. In 2010, Jana Elliott took over leadership, expanded the reach, and launched the first Seeds of Hope summer camp with 39 campers. The ministry expanded into monthly mentorship programs, activities, and additional camps to support the growing number of children referred. Today, Seeds of Hope has served over 780 children in the Piedmont region of North Carolina.
Seeds of Hope joined forces with Heroes Helping Heroes in 2014 and officially became a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization. Together, Jana and Ski are able to extend their reach to vulnerable children both international and domestic. Today, however, the efforts in Africa are suspended and the focus remains on the programs in NC as the resources are limited. Ski and Jana envision a day where Heroes Helping Heroes is available to anyone as a packaged curriculum to serve vulnerable children world-wide.
PRESIDENT
Ski Chilton
Ski is a professor at University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ. He has founded several medical programs within academia, multiple biotechnology companies, and leads two non-profit organizations as the President of Heroes Helping Heroes and Board Chairman of the Persecution Project. Ski is also an established author on the subject of health and diet.
As Heroes Helping Heroes President, Ski supports the organization's strategic growth and connects the important work to other non-profit organizations who also aim to serve vulnerable children across the globe. Ski’s vision for Heroes Helping Heroes is to package the curriculum and make it accessible to communities world-wide to benefit as chapters of the organization.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Jana Elliott
Jana comes to the ministry with a background in executive level non-profit management as well as a marketing and advertising background with a major media player.
Jana also serves as the Executive Director of The Greater Mt. Airy Ministry of Hospitality (TGMAMH) which includes The Shepherd’s House (a homeless shelter serving individuals and families) and Helping Hands Foundation of Surry County, a food pantry.
Jana has and continues to use her roles as a platform for volunteer recruitment as well as raising awareness of the statistics relative to vulnerable members of our communities through educational outreach programs and speaking engagements. Jana welcomes and seeks collaboration with other resource agencies, drawing upon their knowledge and resources in order to maximize impact within the local region as many counties referring these vulnerable clients are large, under-resourced and predominantly rural.
Jana is also a REALTOR with Century 21 Echelon in King, NC. She is a graduate of Salem College and enjoys an active life balancing a farm, her large family, and a love of the great outdoors.
“I am humbled that the Lord has used our home as a safe haven for so many precious babies to heal and grow.”
— Jana Elliot, Executive Director
HEROES HELPING HEROES EXECUTIVE STAFF
Our long-term volunteers work around the clock to support all of Heroes Helping Heroes Operations. These generous individuals take care of countless tasks behind the scenes and keep things running in order to serve 200+ children each year through our programs.
OPERATIONS DIRECTOR
Karen Gordon
OPERATIONS ADMINISTRATOR
Beth James
FINANCIAL ADVISOR
Tom Worthington
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
John Elliott
MEDIA AND DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Stacey Worthington
CAMP DIRECTOR
Allison Eskridge
“Seeds of Hope means HOPE ... it means showing children they have a purpose no matter what their circumstances.”
— Beth James, Operations Administrator