KBHC Board of Directors

Aiko Kahn

Aiko Kahn first discovered Hopeline by seeing a link provided on PostSecret.com.  Touched by the story of a man who lost his wife to suicide and then dedicated his life to preventing the same thing from happening to others, she decided to do whatever she could to support their efforts.  

Having spent the majority of her life struggling with depression, Aiko believes that we all owe it to ourselves and our loved ones to use our experiences with suffering and turn it into compassion for those going through similar struggles. 

Her first experience with helping others was volunteering at Bellevue Hospital in NYC in the outpatient art therapy drug program.  The interaction was amazing and enlightening for her, but unfortunately responsibilities with her career as a hairdresser and industry educator soon made the regularly scheduled volunteering impossible.

In 2008, Aiko introduced herself to Hopeline by putting together a small benefit for the foundation at her TriBeCa salon job, raising $2,700 in 4 hours with 4 stylists doing hair.

Initially intending on finding a way to regularly contribute without interrupting her busy schedule, Aiko brainstormed different simple actions that she could make a habit.  After deciding that the easiest thing to do was to put aside spare change to donate to charity, she realized that this idea was something just about anyone could do.  Aiko then founded the NYC based organization 'Choose Your Change' which promotes the idea that it is the consistent concentrated effort toward a specific need that will create real change in the world.  Aside from offering the idea of donating change, artists are commissioned to donate pieces of art that are containers to be sold on the ChooseYourChange.org web-store.  At check out, the buyer can choose from a list of recommended charities of different genres as to where the proceeds of their purchase will go to.  Graph charts make it possible for the public to see how much support that they have raised for each of these groups that include Hopeline as well as other organizations in need.

Her mission and thus the driving motivation of CYC is to become the bridge between the individual and an urgent cause that the person can relate to and therefore become passionate about.

Now armed with the mutual support of Hopeline, Aiko looks forward to a powerful partnership that will change lives by example and save lives with the message of hope.