Hunting trips helped this Philipsburg teen through cancer battle. How he’s giving back

CJ Coudriet was only 12 years old when he was diagnosed with Stage 3 embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive soft tissue cancer affecting children and adolescents. Three years later, not only has he beaten the disease, he’s also started his own nonprofit to help others benefit from experiences that helped him.

The Philipsburg-Osceola Area High School sophomore created Uplifting Outdoors with the mission of raising funds and support for organizations dedicated to offering life-changing hunting and fishing experiences for ill or disabled children and wounded veterans.

CJ said the trips he’s raising funding for serve as a source of motivation for those trying to find the willpower to push through exhausting bouts of radiation and chemotherapy. And he would know, having benefited from several outdoors trips that were gifted to him while he was battling ERMS.

“I like to say those trips saved my life, because honestly, I probably would have given up if I didn’t have those things to look forward to,” CJ said. “They kept me fighting, and I want to keep others fighting now too. I want to do what those trips did for me, for as many people as I can.”

By the end of this fall, Coudriet will have been on six trips through organizations like Pheasants Forever, the Tom Siple Foundation and Hunt of a Lifetime, although his favorite trip was a Rocky Mountain bull elk hunt in Oregon, courtesy of Clarion-based foundation Camo Cares.

After Uplifting Outdoors received its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in late July, CJ will soon be able to start connecting people with such trips. Getting to this point though required him and his family to overcome three years of both physical and mental challenges.

The diagnosis and treatment

CJ’s diagnosis came one month before his 13th birthday and as his family was gearing up to go on vacation together.

Two days before leaving for vacation, CJ complained about a pain in his side that his parents, Karla and Tim Coudriet, thought could be appendicitis.

But in the emergency room, the doctor told the family that a possibly-cancerous mass was found growing where CJ felt the pain, and advised them to head to the Janet Weis Children’s Hospital in Danville as soon as possible.

That’s where they got a cancer diagnosis, and a second opinion from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia confirmed their worst fears.

“Hearing that diagnosis, you know. ... that’s the type of thing that no parent ever wants to hear — I remember just having this awful feeling in my gut afterward,” Karla Coudriet said. “We were obviously fearing the worst, and unfortunately, the worst had happened.”

CJ began treatment at the Philadelphia hospital, which included 43 weeks of chemotherapy that involved three different chemo medicines, six weeks of radiation therapy and several surgeries.

Throughout his treatment CJ also had to be flown to Philadelphia three times, and in 2024, he had to fight off several clots in his bladder caused by radiation cystitis.

“At the beginning of treatment the fight was easy, but as you go through chemo and all of these other things, it just sucks the life out of you, all of your energy and will to keep going,” CJ said.

CJ’s treatment ended in June 2024, with his end-of-treatment scans showing no tumor growth. He also had follow-up scans taken in May 2025 that confirmed the lack of growth, with an oncologist telling the family that the remainder of the tumor was dead.

Support from the Philipsburg community and beyond

While CJ’s cancer treatment may have been challenging for the whole family, there were several positives that came out of the experience, starting with the coming together of a community.

Upon hearing the news of CJ’s diagnosis, people from all across Philipsburg and the rest of the Moshannon Valley region began chipping in toward treatment.

“I had several friends who, when they heard what happened to CJ, immediately put their heads together on how to help them get through this,” Tim Coudriet said. “It was a community effort to get him through his battle, and we’re all so grateful to everyone in the area that contributed, in any way.”

In additional to community contributions, soon CJ had been gifted with his first two trips — a fishing experience on Lake Erie and a pheasant hunt.

Eventually more organizations caught wind of CJ’s battle, and began gifting him hunting trips that involved more than just shooting some game and leaving.

“For some of the trips I went on, before the actual hunt started I’d be taken to a big outdoors store to get outfitted with whatever I needed,” CJ said. “The organizers would sit me down, give me a list of things to buy and cut me loose in the store — no real limit on prices or anything.”

A clear vision for helping others

The experiences are what ultimately motivated him to start Uplifting Outdoors, and gave him a vision for what he wanted to do with his life.

“Starting this nonprofit has been awesome so far, and being around it everyday has been a reminder to me about what I’ve been through, and why I’m doing what I’m doing,” CJ said. “I was dealt the worst and I’m making the best of it. Even in the future when I graduate high school, I’m hoping to go to college for pediatric oncology nursing.”

CJ and the seven-member board for Uplifting Outdoors have started raising funds for trips, with the most recent fundraiser set to take place soon in the form of a trap shoot on Oct. 4 at the Sandy Ridge Sportsman’s Club.

Registration for the shoot costs $50, and must be completed before Sept. 20. Up to 100 people can sign up, and registration and payment requirements can be completed by calling 814-577-4701, or by scanning the QR codes found on one of the nonprofit’s Facebook posts.

Raffles, food and Uplifting Outdoors merchandise will also be available to purchase at the shoot, and corporate sponsorships are also available.

Following the trap shoot, the Coudriets are hoping that they’ll be able to fully fund their first trip — outfitting, hotel room, and hunt all included — although a date for that first hunt remains to be seen.

“There are still a lot of unknown variable in regards to sponsoring our first hunting trip, but all things considered, we’re incredibly blessed to be in a position to be able to provide that sort of thing in the first place,” Karla Coudriet said. “At the end of the day, we are so proud of CJ for stepping up and taking that initiative to be the person who wants gives back, and whenever the first hunt is, I hope it’ll be as helpful for them as it was for CJ.”