CHOA Project

Hi everyone! I wanted to let you all know of a project I have started working on for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. As you know CHOA is near and dear to my heart because of the time we spend there with Charlotte. I know also that many of us have tried to come up with projects to help CHOA only to be told they really just need donations. While donations are a HUGE part of what make CHOA so successful and accessible to our community and are vitally needed, through our time there I have found a small need.

There is a clinic at CHOA Scottish Rite location, the Judson Hawk clinic, that we frequent most. This is where the top specialists from around Atlanta can come a few days a week or sometimes once a month to see CHOA patients. These specialists have their own practices (some of which no longer accepts new patients) but CHOA "recruits" these specialists to come in to the Judson Hawk clinic so that CHOA patients can be offered the BEST care in Atlanta. Parents travel from all over the southeast to see these doctors. This is where Charlotte sees her pediatric plastic surgeon and her geneticist from Emory. Any funds this clinic receives goes to assisting families with financial burdens and maintaining the clinic staff.

During our visits there I noticed there were no books, no magazines, no coloring books or other activities for the children to keep occupied either in the waiting area or any of the exam rooms. Often times these families have traveled a long time in the car just to get to the clinic, not to mention that most children who visit this clinic have a serious condition to need to see these specialists so these appointments can make parents and children very nervous. After speaking with the nurses, office staff and managers Tad and I have decided to "adopt" this clinic supplying them with new books, magazine subscriptions, coloring/activity books and crayons every few months. We made our first delivery at our appointment in August and the nurses and staff were SO overwhelmed!!

With the holidays coming up I know many of us want to help out in different ways. If you would like to help us with this project please let me know. We can use new books, coloring books and crayons of any kind. Tad's aunt works at this amazing book warehouse where they sell books at over 50% of the cover price so our money can go so much further if you would rather donate money. This is a small project and as such small donations can make a huge difference. A $5 - $10 donation can buy up to FIVE new books for this clinic or a magazine subscription. I appreciate each and every one of you and thank you for your support and prayers over Charlotte the past 3 years!