Kristen Stewart (far left in picture) is staying here at the Ronald McDonald House for three weeks with her grandparents, Theresa and George Williams. Kristen is a very smart and grown up girl for a 7 year old. She has enjoyed making friends and playing with kids going through similar therapy here in Birmingham. To regular kids, they are handicap, but to each other, they are normal. The smiles on their faces are precious.
Like most of the children at the RMH, Kristen is a miracle child. Her family was told she wasn't going to be able to walk. Born with Cerebral Palsy, Kristen has grown up with very tight muscles in her lower back which caused her to walk around bent over like an old woman. Six months ago she underwent a Rhizotomy in her back, which is the cutting of some of the sensory nerve fibers leading from the muscles to the spine to loosen her back and make her able to stand straight. Now Kristen is using a walker and gaining strength every day through the therapy.
Theresa and George are very grateful for the safe and convenient place to stay. They walk out the door and around the corner and are at therapy. They like the almost nightly meals donated to the RMH. George said, "If it weren't for the RMH, we would have had to borrow money to come up here for the therapy Kristen needed." They enjoy getting to talk to the other parents around the house who are going through very similar situations. Theresa put it this way, "We all appreciate what we have."
Magic Moments is sending little Kristen and her cousin Destiny on a Disney Vacation with her grandparents for her 8th Birthday in September! Kristen is most excited to see Mickey Mouse!
On August 28th, the LDR Riding Club rolled into town, bringing with them a $10,619.42 donation and pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House!
The LDR Riding Club is a North Alabama Motorcycle Riding Club that has been supporting RMHCA with their "LDR Tab Run" for the past three years. This year, they collected 386 pounds of pop tabs for RMHCA! Not only did they break their previous year's record of pop tabs, but this year was the first time they held "WingStock", a fundraiser to benefit RMHCA. Thanks to all of their friends and fellow riders they were able to raise an incredible $10,619.42 for the House!
The staff at RMHCA greatly appreciates all that the LDR Club has done for our families and hope they have even more success next year!
Check out the pictures below from their trip down to Birmingham!
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alabama is supported by designations only through our United Way of Central Alabama affiliation. This means that we receive no money from United Way via allocations. If you wish to support Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alabama with your payroll deduction, please write us in on your United Way pledge card.
Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) - For those of you who work for the Federal Government (civilian and military), please enter #55099 on your pledge form to support Birmingham's Ronald McDonald House.
For an example of a United Way of Central Alabama pledge form, click here to download.
Born with an enlarged heart, Laquisha Wyckof's body rejected it sending her into congestive heart failure at the age of twelve. Doctors gave her three months to live and quickly put her on the heart transplant list. On January 5, 2007, after waiting only nine days on the waiting list, Laquisha received her new heart at UAB in Birmingham. It took 2.5 months of recovery time in the hospital. During this time, her mom Lakeisha stayed at the Ronald McDonald House.
When she finally went home to Alexander City, it didn't take long for her body to reject this new heart too; forcing Lakeisha and Laquisha to rush back to Birmingham where she has spent much of the last few years with the doctors, working to force her body to accept the new heart.
The most recent event, on April 20th, Laquisha was back in Alexander City, hopeful that she was fine when her body once again rejected her new heart. She came back to UAB for 2 months, receiving steroids and other antidotes to make the body comply with the heart. She is now out of the hospital at the RMH awaiting the "OK" to go back to Alexander City. The doctors don't want her too far away in case her body goes back into rejection mode. Because of this, Lakeisha is grateful for how convenient the RMH is to UAB.
With medical bills piling up and a long drive back and forth, Lakeisha is appreciative for the Ronald McDonald House. She says the nightly volunteer donated meals are a blessing and delicious. Soon they will go home again and Laquisha is looking forward to getting back to her two sisters who are staying with their grandparents. We will send her off with hope that her body will love her new heart, but for now, we'll keep her comfortable with a warm and happy "home away from home" at the Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham.
