There With Care helps families with severely sick children

Paula DuPré Pesmen tells people her nonprofit There With Care started on the set of the "Harry Potter" films, but the magic it spreads now is very real.

Details: There With Care helps people in metro Denver who have critically ill children. Since launching in 2005 in Boulder, it's helped more than 11,500 families.

• The nonprofit provides services like transportation to medical appointments, food, and emergency rent and mortgage assistance.
• Families are referred by social workers at hospitals including the Children's Hospital Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children.

State of play: Pesmen, a producer of the first three "Harry Potter" movies, started the nonprofit after her husband was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer several years ago.

• She witnessed firsthand how families can struggle to receive support when caring for a sick loved one, so she created an organization specializing in lending a hand.

What they're saying: "Sometimes families become strangers and strangers become families when you're in a crisis," Pesmen says, quoting something she recently heard from a family her nonprofit helped.

What's next: There With Care wants to raise $100,000 during Colorado Gives Day.