The girls from the Teen Mom franchise have gotten a bad rap over the years. While some of the franchise’s stars have chosen to use the fame that the show has garnered them to promote less-than-positive activities, some of the girls are doing their best to make a difference. (It’s nice to write about the positive stuff every once in a while!)

Last weekend, Teen Mom stars Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra teamed up with Teen Mom 2 stars Kail Lowry and Javi Marroquin to put on a charity event that raised nearly $2,500 for a little girl battling a rare form of cancer.

The ‘Teen Mom’ crew teamed up with the charity organization The LinkFund to host a fan meet-and-greet event in Brighton, Michigan, on July 13. This was very close to the hometown of Amelie “Amie” Strzalkowski, a three-year-old that has been fighting a malignant Medulloblastoma brain tumor for years and is currently undergoing treatment to help her beat the disease.  The event included activities put together by the organization Mom2Mom, as well as the fan meet-and-greet and signings of Kail’s book, Pride Over Pity. (All proceeds from that day’s books sales were donated to Amie.)

The event ended up raising almost $2,500, and was more successful than anyone expected!

“Way more people came than we all thought,” Kail told The Ashley in an exclusive interview after the event. “As much as it hurts my heart that Amie and her family have been going through this I feel so thankful to be able to do something like this to help her–and hopefully more families in the future–out.”

Kail said that she and the other ‘Teen Mom’ stars wanted to help with this event because they wanted to use the fame the show has given them in a positive way.

“I would have never imagined that the show would give us these kinds of opportunities to help other families beyond teen pregnancy prevention,” Kail said.

According to Ashley Haponek, who runs The LinkFund, the ‘Teen Mom’ crew was wonderful to work with.

“Working with Kailyn, Javi, Cate and Tyler was more incredible than we can put into words,” she said. “We have so much respect for these four and it was so easy and enjoyable to work with them! The turnout was great and, as you can see from social media, the couples were a pleasure to meet.”

Kail said that the event was so successful that she and Javi are already talking to Catelynn and Tyler about doing another meet-and-greet.

“We loved hanging out with Tyler and Catelynn! They’re great people,” she said. “There will definitely be more joint events. We are already talking about what we can do next to give back.”

Ashley of The LinkFund said that all of the hard work putting  this event together was worth it because it helped Amie and her family.

“This is the most incredible, amazing three-year-old you could ever meet,” she said. “We can’t wait for our next event and to see what the future brings and how many more people we can help.”

The ‘Teen Mom’ girls have long been criticized for glamorizing teen pregnancy, and Kail said she hopes that critics will see the positive things that some of the show’s stars are trying to do with their fame.

“I hope both the [show’s] supporters and the people who disagree [with the show] see that we are trying to do great things with the ‘platform’ we were put on from the show,” she said. “It’s our responsibility to do these things and show other young people how we can all get together and give back.”

To read more about Amie’s story, or to donate, click here.