I might be crazy. I’m a busy mom to a toddler, I work a full time job, I blog and I volunteer. When do I have time to run a non-profit??? It’s been a dream of mine for a long time, so here’s the story behind our charity.
It started shortly after Abby and Parker died in 2013. I spent the months following their losses concentrating on Peyton, our lone survivor. My grief was on hold as I spent all of my time caring for our higher needs child, who was attached to an oxygen tank and required several appointments each week. As the months passed by, my husband and I began to grieve. We missed our two babies and often talked about what life would have been like if all three babies came home with us. As the first anniversary of their deaths approached, we wanted to do something to honor and remember them. We asked friends and family to send children’s books if they wished and we would pass them out to new families in the Nicu. That year, we received more than 250 books.
As the second year approached, we shared with friends and family how we planned to honor Parker and Abby. Once again, we were showered with love and support. We had more than 200 books to donate to our local Nicu. During the early days of our four month Nicu stay, we couldn’t hold our children. Peyton and Parker were only one pound each and critically ill. In the first week of the roller coaster experience, one of their nurses suggested bringing books in to read to them. Research shows that reading to a preemie can help stimulate their brain and it also serves as a good way for the parents to bond with their child.
This year, I wanted to take it to the next level. While I’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions, I did tell my husband my one goal for 2016: to start a charity in honor of our children. We tossed around the idea for months, with a goal of launching in time for Parker’s Angelversary on August 16th. First up, we needed the perfect name. We knew we wanted to incorporate all three of our triplets in the name. That’s how Triple Heart Foundation was born.
Thanks to one of Ryan’s best friends, we have a wonderful lawyer who has helped our plan come to fruition. It takes a lot of time to get a charity up and running! Between the legal aspect, the planning and the finances, it’s a very consuming task. Earlier this month, our paperwork was sent off to register Triple Heart Foundation as a 501c3 non-profit charity. While our application is pending, donations may be retroactively tax deductible.
In less than two weeks of launching our charity, we’ve received well over 100 books and monetary donations! We’ve been blown away by the support of so many people across the country. Every time I receive an email from a family who has received one of our books, I tear up. It’s a simple and inexpensive gift that means so much to these families. And thanks to the monetary donations, we’re able to create special labels and bookmarks to go inside each book.
So what are our plans for the future of our charity? We have plenty of ideas, but we want to take our time as we get our feet wet in this new endeavor. In the coming months, we plan to make several donations to St. John’s Children’s Hospital in Springfield. We would like to do special donations centered around holidays and special dates, like “Prematurity Awareness Month” in November. We plan to apply for grants and be able to help the Nicu in other ways, not just by donating books. We also want people to be able to contact us and have the resources to send a children’s book to a Nicu family in any hospital across the country.
And we want to hear your ideas for us. This is just the beginning. I know that big things are ahead for Triple Heart Foundation and I can’t wait to see how our charity unfolds. I see my daughter so full of life and thrilled to help others at such a young age…and that warms my heart. I am proud of all that Peyton has overcome in just three years and I feel blessed to be able to honor her, as well as Parker and Abby, by helping spread some joy to other families going through the Nicu experience.
Please take a moment to check out our new website! You can find out how to make donations, as well as see a list of recommended books for Nicu families and learn more about our mission. Plus, we’ll be in need of volunteers in the near future as our charity grows. We’d love to hold book drives and fundraisers across the country, with the help of volunteers. Feel free to contact us through the website if you’d like to help in some way. www.tripleheartfoundation.com
How awesome.