Popular Maryland meteorologist Justin Berk has two overriding passions: educating people about weather and helping kids with cancer.

Since launching the nonprofit Just In Power Kids in 2018, Berk and his team have donated more than $90,000 for parking passes and food supplies for young patients with cancer getting treatment at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center — and for their families. Plus, the nonprofit supports more than 200 families on a case-by-case basis in a variety of ways, from paying for out-of-state travel so children can participate in a potentially life saving clinical trial, to providing prepared meals or hiring a housecleaning service to give stressed-out families a break.

“Our focus right now is to follow the needs of the family,” Berk says, “and we were amazed to learn that one of the top needs is assistance paying for parking. The garages at The Johns Hopkins Hospital are owned by the city of Baltimore and those fees can add up. It’s just a stressor families don’t need when their child is undergoing cancer treatment.”

Berk knows firsthand how overwhelming that ordeal can be. When he was 14, he was misdiagnosed with bone cancer in his left leg — it turned out to be a severe infection — and thought for a while the leg would have to be amputated.

“I recovered and went on to become a high school sprinter, but I know what painful surgery, long hospital stays and a scary outlook are like,” he says.

So, using his platform as a well-known local weather forecaster — 20 years on television and now broadcasting online with his website at justinweather.com — he decided in 2014 to launch the Maryland Trek. The seven-day, 329-mile hiking and biking event, which is held every August, begins in Western Maryland and ends on the Eastern Shore. It has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for children with cancer.

It also features and pays tribute to a different child receiving cancer treatment on each day of the race. “Justin cares so much about these kids and just wants each one to know how important they are,” says Bethany Hallsted, who helps run the Maryland Trek and is the Just In Power Kids program director.

Hallsted’s daughter, Isla, was one of the children honored by the Maryland Trek. When she was 11, Isla was diagnosed with osteosarcoma and underwent a harrowing but ultimately successful monthslong treatment. Two years later, Isla is cancer-free. Bethany joined forces with Just In Power Kids because she wanted to help support other families facing cancer — her family met many of them at Johns Hopkins and on the trek, and through Just In Power Kids.

“What Isla went through changed us, our family and friends forever,” says Hallsted. “As Justin says, we are the very grateful members of the most amazing and supportive club you never wanted to be part of.”