Today’s Daily Camera and Denver Post each have great feel-good stories about an entreprenuerial charitable project dreamed up by Michelle Gaffney, daughter of The Community Foundation’s CFO, Debbie Gaffney.
Michelle, 14, has been through a crushing number of surgeries and suffered daily migraines and backaches for the past year. But rather than complain, she has taken up the cause of making pillows to comfort hospitalized kids who are in worse shape than her.
As the Daily Camera reports:
“In October 2007 Michelle, now a freshman at Boulder High, had back surgery to fuse together parts of her spine, correcting a severe case of back-curving scoliosis. Spinal surgery is never easy, but she had hoped to be back in school six weeks later. Now, 14 months, one terrible infection, six spinal taps and three back surgeries later, she’s preparing for her fourth spine operation, which is scheduled for Friday, the last day of final exams.
… So this week, before Michelle goes into her own surgery, she will pull a little red wagon through the halls of The Children’s Hospital in Denver, handing out about a hundred fuzzy, bright pillows she made herself.”
There’s far more to this story, by the way. The Gaffney family has been sent through a criminal number of hassles for more than a year by insurance giant PacifiCare. Reams of paperwork and sleepless nights later, however, the Gaffneys are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.
Many thanks to Camera reporter Laura Snider and Denver Post reporter Sally Ho for writing about Michelle’s good works.
Click here for the full Camera story: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/dec/15/boulder-teen-makes-sick-children-cozy/
Click here for the full Post story: http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_11240859
