CHI Health St. Francis receives donation from Hallelujah Foundation

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) - CHI Health St. Francis received a $10,000 donation from the Hallelujah Foundation to help patients with critically-ill newborns. Founders, Seth and Sara Yount created the foundation in honor of their daughter Halle who passed away at 23 days old from an unknown genetic variant.

The funds will be used at St. Francis to help patients impacted by stillbirths, extended stays in the NICU, or transfers for a higher level of mother/newborn care.

“It’s a great way for us to give back to our patients,” said Melissa Griffith, Foundation Director at CHI Health St. Francis. “With the Hallelujah fund, it’s a very generous program that we have here locally in Grand Island and it’s a nice way they’ve been touched by their family and for them to give back to help families that go through the same situations is pretty amazing.”

CHI St. Francis has partnered with the Hallelujah Foundation the past several years to push forth getting families in need all the help they need that insurance won’t cover. “This is the largest donation we have received from the Hallelujah Foundation,” said Griffith.

Most of the money is raised through the Hallelujah Foundation’s annual father-daughter dance in the spring, which has been a fixture in the community since it started in 2018.

“To be able to work here and to see directly the patients that it impacts is empowering,” said Beth Deida, Maternal/Child Nurse Educator. “To be able to go into a room and tell a mom ‘Hey I know you’re going through a really hard thing right now and I got this incredible fund from an incredibly generous family who wants to help you with what you’re going through right now.”

The foundation also provides Hallelujah bags that are custom fit to the need of the patient’s situation, doing their best to make families feel like someone is there in uncomfortable times.

“We have had plenty of funds and now with this new donation we’re just able to impact and help so many more families going forward,” Deida said. “There’s really not a family that’s turned away. If our nurses notice there’s a family in need immediately they put a referral in to have social work come and visit with them, so that we can help them with whatever their needs may be.”

The Yount’s expanded giving will now impact pediatric and emergency services.

“The money stays local,” Griffith said. “They stay right here in our hospital to help our programs and in our community and so what was happening is our donor wanted to give back to our community and to our patients, and so they choose St. Francis to give their money to so we can help our local community members and our families here.”

Copyright 2022 KSNB. All rights reserved.