Jocelynn Staley says her relationship with Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford has evolved over time from a concerned parent to a grateful supporter.
The Staley family’s first connection to the hospital came when their son, Cole, was admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit shortly after birth. After a week and a half, Cole was able to head home, and continued to return for visits with specialists over the next three years. Because of the care he received early on, Cole has grown into a healthy, thriving 8-year-old who enjoys spending time with his two younger brothers, Wyatt and Reid.
Jocelynn and her husband, Jeff, look back on those early days with Cole and feel appreciation and admiration for the care they received.
“We felt so fragile,” Jocelynn remembers. “But once he made it through, we felt so grateful. It was not just the doctors, but also the nurses, the social workers, and more—the whole team—that made us feel supported as an entire family. It became important for us to give back.”
In the years following their experience with Cole, Jocelynn and Jeff have seen many others benefit from the world-class care available at our hospital.
“We’ve had friends go through other medical challenges, and we’ve seen how other families in the community have benefited from areas of the hospital including the transplant and oncology programs,” Jocelynn says. “As we learned more about the hospital and saw the depth of the resources and innovation available, we realized what an important part of our community it is.”
Today the Staleys belong to the Children’s Circle of Care (CCOC), supporting the Lucile Packard Children’s Fund annually. Their gifts, and those of other donors, are directed to the hospital’s highest priorities including community and social services, research, and uncompensated care.
“Forty percent of the hospital’s patients need financial assistance. It’s hard to think about how families deal with the financial burdens of this kind of crisis on top of everything else. It’s been important to Jeff and me that our donations go into the Children’s Fund to help these families,” Jocelynn says. “And we also saw the hospital’s commitment to innovative research, so we felt comfortable giving in a general way, trusting that there will be an impact from our contribution.”
The Children’s Circle of Care recognizes donors who give $10,000 or more annually. To learn more, visit supportLPCH.org.
This article first appeared in the Fall 2015 issue of Lucile Packard Children's News.