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<p>It began with a moment back home in Wilkes-Barre, while Kylee McGrane was watching a movie.</p><p>And it turned into a fantasy fulfillment that will give her a chance to start a game at Yankee Stadium.</p><p>McGrane, the executive director of a New York-based pediatric brain cancer foundation called A Moment of Magic, will throw out the first pitch Monday before the Yankees host the Kansas City Royals at 1:05 p.m.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m a little nervous,&#8221; laughed McGrane, who was a member of the swimming and track and field teams before graduating from Coughlin High School five years ago but can&#8217;t remember even playing softball since grade school. &#8220;I am doing a lot of practice. That&#8217;s not really my forte, to throw a baseball. But I&#8217;m trying to learn.&#8221;</p><p>Her strong suit is brightening the lives of ailing children, which is really what took her to Yankee Stadium in the first place.</p><p>McGrane was supposed to deliver her pitch back on May 25, but received a little extra time to warm up instead. The game was rained out and rescheduled for Monday, when McGrane was invited back to the mound.</p><p>But she&#8217;s been proving herself as an ace in the eyes of children for awhile.</p><p>McGrane&#8217;s self-started foundation caught the attention of the Yankees, who contacted her during the team&#8217;s annual Hope Week &#8212; when team members make appearances at charitable events in the New York area.</p><p>During one of the hundreds of visits to children&#8217;s hospitals organized by A Moment of Magic this year, the Yankees pitching staff arrived in full costume: Pitcher C.C. Satathia was dressed as Superman, general manager Brian Cashman went as Spiderman, Jordan Montgomery showed up as Captain America, and Luis Severino wore an Ironman outfit.</p><p>They also arrived with a donation of $10,000 to the A Moment of Magic organization.</p><p>The smiles on the faces of afflicted children were priceless, McGrane said. But that was the true idea from the start.</p><p>&#8220;We work with children with serious medical issues,&#8221; McGrane, the charity&#8217;s co-founder, said. &#8220;Most of the kids we meet are battling brain cancer. We give them bags full of presents and toys. We dress up as princesses, as superheroes. It&#8217;s exciting for the kids to interact with their favorite characters they see on TV all the time.&#8221;</p><p>After all, this whole idea got started when McGrane was watching a 2013 release called &#8216;Frozen&#8217; &#8212; an animated Disney film featuring characters trying to save a town from perpetual winter &#8212; during her Christmas break from classes in 2014 when she was a sophomore at Mount Saint Vincent College in New York.</p><p>&#8220;It was kind of funny,&#8221; McGrane said. &#8220;I was actually home in Wilkes-Barre, watching &#8216;Frozen.&#8217; Wheels in my head started spinning. It was kind of like an epiphany of everything I wanted coming together in one idea.&#8221;</p><p>She pitched it to her first college roommate and best friend Maggie McAndrew, and the two started a GoFundMe page for sick children. The response was so great, McGrane said. They raised the stakes and began dressing as characters and visiting children&#8217;s hospitals while establishing their foundation as college students.</p><p>&#8220;I mean, I was filing for non-profit status in our library,&#8221; McGrane said. &#8220;This is as grass-roots as it gets.&#8221;</p><p>It&#8217;s taken roots, though.</p><p>According to McGrane, A Moment of Magic has branched out to 500 different college chapters across the country, from New York to Arizona, and has visited some 7,000 children at hospitals and in their homes. The idea, McGrane said, is to help kids feel superhero-type strength as they prepare for and recover from frightening surgeries.</p><p>&#8220;We started with Cohen&#8217;s Children&#8217;s Hospital,&#8221; said McGrane, who became the foundation&#8217;s executive director after graduating college this past spring and travels the country trying to help brighten the spirits of afflicted children. &#8220;The first time I went, I got to meet the children, I got to learn their names, about their families, their favorite movies. It became all I wanted to do and all I wanted to talk about. Essentially, it started as kind of an idea.</p><p>&#8220;It became my life mission.&#8221;</p><p>Her objective Monday will be trying to throw a baseball from the pitchers mound at Yankees Stadium all the way to home plate, but McGrane remains undaunted.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll have two little princesses standing there with me, who are cancer survivors,&#8221; McGrane said.</p><p>But she believes A Moment of Magic is only in the early stages of the game.</p><p>McGrane is working on more events to raise awareness, along with funds to help alleviate, if not eliminate, some of the suffering sick children are going through. One of those ideas includes the Superhero and Princess 3-miler, a race which will be held Oct. 15 at the Wilkes-Barre Riverside. Registration for the race will begin at 7:30 a.m. the day of the race &#8212; and full costumes are encouraged.</p><p>&#8220;That would be nice,&#8221; McGrane laughed, &#8220;but it&#8217;s not required. We&#8217;re just so grateful for the support in the community.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_kylee-sit-4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Coughlin graduate Kylee McGrane, the co-founder of A Moment of Magic, talks to a young cancer patient at the Ronald McDonald House in Manhattan earlier this year. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_kylee-sit-4.jpg</photo0><caption0>Coughlin graduate Kylee McGrane, the co-founder of A Moment of Magic, talks to a young cancer patient at the Ronald McDonald House in Manhattan earlier this year. </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_kylee-grass-4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre native Kylee McGrane shares a hug and a smile with a cancer patient during Curefest for Childhood Cancer in Washington, D.C. last weekend. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_kylee-grass-4.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wilkes-Barre native Kylee McGrane shares a hug and a smile with a cancer patient during Curefest for Childhood Cancer in Washington, D.C. last weekend. </caption1><photoCredit1>Submitted photo </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_kylee-face-4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Coughlin graduate Kylee McGrane, a co-founder of A Moment of Magic, tries to get a smile from a childhood cancer patient during THON, held at Penn State&#8217;s Bryce Jordan Center in February. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_kylee-face-4.jpg</photo2><caption2>Coughlin graduate Kylee McGrane, a co-founder of A Moment of Magic, tries to get a smile from a childhood cancer patient during THON, held at Penn State&#8217;s Bryce Jordan Center in February. </caption2><photoCredit2>Submitted photo </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Coughlin grad making pitch to help ailing children</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Paul Sokoloski</p><p>psokoloski@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</p></shirttailMeta></div>

A magical act: Coughlin grad Kylie McGrane making pitch to help ailing children