Hope for the Holidays with Help Hope Live
By Emily Progin, Help Hope Live
What a year it's been! The holiday season often feels like a natural time to reflect on the milestones, challenges, triumphs, and breakthroughs of the previous year. For many people, it's also a time to draw closer to their community in whichever ways matter most to them.
For the Help Hope Live network, "community" is an essential concept all year 'round. After all, community-based fundraising is how our clients fund and fuel the milestones and breakthroughs they celebrate each year.
As we end 2022, our nonprofit is celebrating a few major milestones, too. During our last year:
- 32,000+ donations were made to help fuel hope for families facing a medical crisis
- Fundraising efforts raised $7.8 million to help clients heal, live, and thrive
- Funds raised covered $6.3 million in critical medical and related expenses
These numbers show the big picture behind our nonprofit's work. While we are definitely proud of our organization's national impact, in truth, we know that our mission delivers help and hope in the most personal sense possible.
When Hope is Needed Most, That's Where We Come In
Some individuals and families turn to Help Hope Live at a time of hope—a time when an exceptional new treatment, piece of technology, or opportunity fuels their vision of a brighter future. When finances stand in the way of those new horizons, we're here to help, providing trusted medical fundraising that's tax deductible for donors and backed by verified medical needs and expenses.
Others turn to Help Hope Live in a time of darkness—a time when light and hope are hard to find, and it takes everything they have just to get through another day. In these moments, we believe that the last thing individuals and families should be worrying about is how to make ends meet. With genuine compassion and decades of fundraising expertise behind us, we work one-on-one with every client to help them turn their community's generosity and care into tangible assistance during that time of overwhelming need.
No matter when and why families choose Help Hope Live, each of their stories matters to us. We are with our clients for a lifetime of need—through trials, celebrations and so much more.
How Abilities Expo Fuels Our Hope
Every year, we look back as a team and feel so grateful for exceptional events like Abilities Expos: they renew and refresh our clients and our nonprofit in more ways than one.
For clients, Abilities Expos are extremely unique opportunities to experience cutting-edge equipment, technology, mobility devices and so much more—items that can significantly impact their quality of life, health and independence.
For our team, Abilities Expos are a rare and special chance to connect with client families and prospective clients in-person. We get to explain how fundraising can bring all that life-changing care and cutting-edge equipment within closer reach.
With each year that passes, we get to see excited Abilities Expo attendees become Help Hope Live clients. And with the help of thousands of generous and supportive communities nationwide, we get to see some of those clients meet their fundraising goals and broaden their horizons.
Here are just a few of those stories.
A New Van for a Dancing Queen
Seven-year-old Riley Drury is living with spina bifida and Turner's Syndrome and uses a manual wheelchair for mobility. Her health and wellness depend on consistent access to surgical care, key pieces of equipment, and medical supplies.
Riley is highly engaged with her community and loves playing with dolls, watching TV, swimming lessons, and so much more. But parents Josh and Sarah encountered a major obstacle: an urgent need for a wheelchair accessible van.
With limited help from insurance, they found themselves struggling with an out-of-pocket price tag of over $20,000 to bring reliable transportation within reach for Riley. That's why they turned to Help Hope Live.
At Abilities Expo Dallas, our team got the chance to experience Riley's magnificent and genuine personality—and see this talented little girl sparkle and shine on the dance floor. We returned from Dallas to hear some exceptional news:
Riley's community exceeded their $20,000 fundraising goal in less than 11 days.
"We are all blown away by your generosity," posted Riley's family. "Last night, we were able to bring home our new accessible van. Riley loves it!"
A Hope-Filled Reunion in Miami
In 1999, Jerome Postal sustained a spinal cord injury in an act of random violence that upended his life in the blink of an eye. Adjusting to life with C7 quadriplegia, the husband and father had to build a new normal from the ground up—and that new normal would require a lot of changes, including home accessibility, new mobility gear, and much more.
Before his injury, Jerry was an active beach-lover. Jerry's family knew it would be life-changing to give him the chance to fully experience the outdoors and the sandy shores again post-injury. They secured an iBOT wheelchair for Jerry, offering exceptional maneuverability and restoring his beloved beach access. Instantly, "it expanded his life and his joy," explained family members.
After 15 years, Jerry's iBOT took on a little too much wear and tear to keep moving him forward. That's why Jerry and his family turned to Help Hope Live.
With our help and their community's generosity, the campaign raised over $40,000—enough to fund a brand-new iBOT.
When we visited Abilities Expo Miami this year, we spotted a familiar face! Our team got the chance to catch up with Jerry and family in-person, celebrating the renewed hope that community support offered Jerry at a time of need.
How to Get Hope—or Give Hope—for the Holidays
If you or someone you care about could use some help to get the care and equipment they need to heal, live, and thrive, put them in touch with Help Hope Live for trusted medical fundraising. Our team is here to be a source of support during the good times, the difficult times, and all the times in between, leveraging the power of community support to cultivate hope.
Has this year given you the ability to provide hope to others? Our nonprofit shares client stories and fundraising campaigns every week on our Latest blog and on social media. Why not follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, or TikTok? If a client story moves you, be the change and make that donation.
If you'd like to spread hope on a larger scale, our nonprofit is always extremely grateful for donations to support our mission as a whole. Every gift makes it possible for us to touch thousands of lives and cover millions in medical expenses annually through compassionate community-based fundraising. Learn about our annual fund and contribute today.
Happy Holidays—from our community of hope to yours!
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