After a routine ultrasound twenty weeks into her pregnancy, Jodi Lemacks heard the words no parent ever wants to hear: Your baby has a heart defect. It is one hundred percent fatal unless he has three open-heart surgeries. She and…
He was hospitalized two hours away from home and placed on the waiting list for a new heart. It didn’t seem like anything that anyone said to me was going to make things better,” Towanda Bagley says, as she reflects…
When she was two, Zemon Briggs’ mother enrolled her and her siblings in childcare, summer programs, and other enrichment activities at FRIENDS Association for Children in Richmond. As a young adult, FRIENDS helped Briggs apply for college scholarships and loans.…
For Eva, her role as a certified nursing assistant with Family Lifeline’s Home Care program is more than just a job. Eva’s position at Family Lifeline, a personalized support program for children, parents, and seniors, led her to a second…
Clementines, cucumbers, mini-carrots, and apples served at after-school activities; kids participating in organized activities during recess; a child riding a stationary bike while reading in class. Lofty goals or reality? “This is the kind of energy we’re trying to bring…
With four boys ages four through twelve, Beth Cornwell is a busy mom. Her daily focus is keeping her family organized and active, and NOVA of Virginia Aquatics plays an important role. Sons Quinn and Matthew swim on the NOVA…
Tykara Evans was given up for adoption at four months old and spent most of her early years in the child welfare system.After unsuccessful foster care placements, 17-year-old Tykara was placed in a group home at Virginia Home for Boys…
Last Election Day, a staffer at Starlight Children's Foundation MidAtlantic visited a local children's hospital and met Mason. A frequent flier, Mason had just celebrated his ninth birthday and was fighting his forty-fourth case of pneumonia. Spying the staffer's I…
Imagine that your child has just been diagnosed with autism, a neurodevelopmental disability that impacts one in 88 children in the United States and 90,000 individuals in the state of Virginia. "It was like being kicked in the teeth," says…
