Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation’s 14th annual Country 105 Caring for Kids Radiothon starts today
By the time he was two weeks old, Parker had endured three major surgeries.
Born with a heart murmur and major gastrointestinal blockages, among other troubles, the little fellow immediately went under the care of medical professionals at the Alberta Children’s Hospital who specialized in cardiology, urology, nephrology, gastroenterology, genetics, infectious disease, and pain management.
“We had an amazing nurse in the ICU, where we used to sit with Parker, named Helene,” recalls Parker’s mom Ann. “I remember her asking me: ‘Do you want to hold him?’
“He was attached to so many machines, so many lines. Helene said, ‘It’s going to be so therapeutic for him, and you.’ It took four or five people to get him into my arms . . . even if it was 10 minutes, he needed that,” adds Ann. “The doctors and nurses here, they love these kids. My goodness.
“They just have this innate passion to do what they do. Such skill and expertise and comfort. It blows me away every day.”
For Parker, and 95,000 other children who rely on the Calgary-based Alberta Children’s Hospital, this is a very big week. Today through Friday, the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation will hold its 14th annual Country 105 Caring for Kids Radiothon.
This tremendous community-building event helps raise money for the hospital’s highest-priority needs. Over the years, the generosity of Country 105 listeners has helped fund essential programs, equipment and research that is changing—and saving—children’s lives every day.
Through its first 13 editions, the Country 105 Caring for Kids Radiothon has raised more than $20 million. And in the next three days, a three-day-long live broadcast from the hospital will carry firsthand the stories of dozens of courageous kids, their brave parents, and their astonishingly dedicated caregivers.
Each year, the Country 105 Caring for Kids Radiothon holds a series of Power Hours—concentrated bursts of fundraising activity that help purchase leading-edge technology and equipment.
Enbridge, a regular sponsor of this annual event, is committed to enhancing quality of life in the communities where we operate.
On Thursday, Feb. 9, from 1 to 2 p.m. MT, our employees will be staffing the phone lines and taking pledges during the Enbridge Power Hour—and hoping to eclipse our existing record of $82,000, raised in just 60 minutes in 2015, for kids like Parker.
“Parker’s home. He’s alive. And he’s doing better. He’s a miracle,” Ann said recently. “It took us a long time to accept that we may never be out of the woods . . . but we live in the woods. The woods can be a beautiful place. And you can still make a home in the woods."
(TOP PHOTO: Parker, at right, with his family during the Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation's annual Country 105 Caring for Kids Radiothon.)
