Donor Highlight: The Allen Family
When we first found out Carter was going to be born with HLHS we naturally went to the internet to find out as much information as possible on this terrifying diagnosis. That’s when we happened upon the Sisters By Heart website. There we found an abundance very helpful information and we’re able to request a care package for newly diagnosed families. This was particularly helpful as we knew nothing about the road ahead.
Carter had his Norwood and Glenn and things seemed to be going well. Shortly after his Glenn however he went into progressing heart failure and the decision was made to list him for heart transplant. He received his gift of life just before he turned 7 months old. The items in the care package and the information from both the website and Stacey were a vital part of our journey. Stacey even came and visited us in the hospital. It was incredibly helpful to talk with someone that had experienced some of what we were experiencing.
Once Carter was on the path to recovery we looked into how we could give back to the group which helped us navigate the most difficult of times.
Both of us work at Costco and our employees company wide do a United Way Foundation campaign. We looked into it and discovered we were able to select a charity of our choice for our donations to go to. We knew Sisters by heart was where we wanted to send those funds. This is a campaign Costco does every year and we continue to select SBH to receive our donations. For the past few years we have been apart of organizing a charity golf tournament with proceeds being split between SBH and another charity. Our continued support of Sisters By Heart is just our family doing a small part to help the wonderful group that guided us and supported us through our sons life threatening battle. We could never repay them but any small help we can provide will hopefully let them continue to help families of kiddos born with congenital heart defects.
Written by Carter’s dad, Matt Allen
Donor Highlight- Angel Memorial Gifts
Occasionally – yet much more often than we would like – we are contacted by a family who has endured the unbearable loss of a child with single ventricle heart disease. In the midst of their darkest days, these families want to contribute to Sisters by Heart in their child’s memory. We are humbled by the generosity and strength of these families in such a profound way. Recently, we were contacted by the aunt of a beautiful angel who passed soon after birth. The family wanted to make a meaningful contribution in this little one’s name and chose Sisters by Heart, asking us to use the money to purchase a needed comfort item for our newborn care packages. Sometimes a family wants to make a one-time, individual gift, sometimes families ask their friends and relatives to donate in their child’s name, in lieu of flowers at a funeral, and sometimes (as in this case), several family members want to donate and ask us to utilize the gift in a specific way. No matter the size of the gift or the intended use, we are awed by their generosity and find it impossible to adequately express our gratitude. Sometimes where there are no words, there is still action to be taken. For us, that action is to remember these angels and their families and work hard every day to support and advocate for the single ventricle community
