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Family gives to help care for the caregivers

Thanks to the generosity of Tim and Marilyn Holcer, single parents and other caregivers of children being treated at Children’s Memorial are eligible for short-term emergency assistance through the Andre Sobel River of Life Fund.

Sick children benefit when their families are strong. But for some, especially single parents or other caregivers, a child’s serious illness can cause immense stress and severe financial impact, making it difficult to provide a child with the kind of emotional support that promotes healing. Thanks to the generosity of donors Tim and Marilyn Holcer, Children’s Memorial Hospital is able to provide short-term emergency assistance on a case-by-case basis to single caregivers undergoing financial hardship. This allows them to focus on the most important thing: their child’s health.

The Holcers provided seed funding to establish the Andre Sobel River of Life Fund at the hospital, a partnership between Children’s Memorial’s Family Services and the Andre Sobel River of Life Foundation. Thanks to the Holcers’ gift, resources are available to help caregivers undergoing financial difficulties. This can mean providing free hospital parking and cafeteria meals or assistance with transportation, groceries, utility bills and, occasionally, rent or mortgage payments. The program bolsters Children’s Memorial’s Family Services Emergency Fund by giving social workers immediate access to emergency funds within 24 hours of a caregiver’s request. Both programs exemplify Children’s Memorial’s commitment to providing care for the entire family.

When the Holcers’ daughter was seriously injured in a car accident when she was a teen, they witnessed firsthand how children benefit when parents or other caregivers are able to spend as much time as possible with them at the hospital. Marilyn recalls staying with her daughter virtually 24 hours a day for weeks at the area hospital where she was treated.

“I remember sleeping in a chair in her room at night so she was never by herself” says Marilyn. “But when I would walk through the hospital, I would often see kids who were by themselves, and I could see the fear and loneliness in their eyes because their parents weren’t able to be with them. I could also see the frustration and desperation in the eyes of the parents, and it really touched me. Tim and I were fortunate because, between family and friends, someone was always with our daughter. We had a strong support network to help us get through our challenges, unlike some of the parents we saw. We decided that if we could find a way to help families like these, we would.”

Years later, Marilyn read an article about Valerie Sobel, founder of the Los Angeles-based foundation that bears the name of her son, Andre, who died of a brain tumor at age 19. Since 2000, the Foundation has provided more than $3.7 million in program assistance to 9,000 family members in partnership with 13 pediatric hospitals nationwide.

Marilyn and Tim met with Valerie and, in 2009, they formed a partnership. With the Holcers’ seed funding, the Foundation awarded a four-year, $100,000 challenge grant to establish the program at Children’s Memorial. For the program to reach its full potential, it will require a $25,000 match each year from like-minded donors.

The fund at Children’s Memorial is directed by Ellen Rosendale, director of Family Programs, and Nancy Heap, LCSW, manager of Social Work and Palliative Care. According to Heap, Family Services social workers identify individuals who may benefit from short-term emergency assistance based on an assessment of the family’s needs and the personal and community resources available for them. If these resources are insufficient, Heap says the fund allows Children’s Memorial to “fill the gap.”

“Literally, some families would not be able to get their child here for treatment if we didn’t have these services available,” she says. “Some of them would go hungry because they don’t have the money to buy a meal at the cafeteria.”

For the Holcers, giving to help single caregivers was an easy decision.

“It’s hard to imagine what it’s like to be a single parent and wake up every day having to choose between visiting your sick child or staying at home to care for your other children, or worrying that if you take time off from work you might lose your job,” says Marilyn. “If you’re fortunate enough to be able to help sick children and their families, you owe it to yourself to do so.”

You can help ensure that caregivers of seriously ill children will continue to benefit from the availability of emergency assistance by giving today to support the Andre Sobel River of Life Fund at Children’s Memorial Hospital.