PEORIA, Ill. – A group of volunteers are hoping small gifts provide a “wonderful distraction” to kids battling life-threatening diseases this holiday season at OSF Children’s Hospital.
Volunteers from the Ahmad Butler Foundation on Friday delivered 60 care packages filled with toys, snacks, gift cards, superhero capes, and more.
The Ahmad Butler Foundation is a nationwide organization established in 2020 that honors the six-year-old child by the same name, who passed away from brain cancer in 2015. Ahmad wanted to be a police officer as an adult, and wanted to help people.
Heather Sunderland is one of the ABF volunteers who helped fill up and hand out the care packages at the hospital Friday, and calls it an “amazing” experience.”
“Just to be able to help them, I’m honestly speechless, I’m very grateful that I got the opportunity to do this,” Sunderland said.
Sunderland says she has four kids of her own, and wanted to do what she could to help the kids at OSF and their families.
18-year-old Mylah Hightower is one of the patients who received a care package at the hospital. She is battling pneumatosis, a condition that affects the intestines.
Mylah’s mother, Loreece, says it means the world to receive the gifts.
“It allows us to know that she’s still seen, that she’s cared for, and that her condition doesn’t define her,” Loreece Hightower said. “But that she’s just a kid. She’s a normal kid who loves normal things, and just to be able to have a piece of normalcy in the midst of our battle is a blessing.”
Comments