This weekend, thousands of CHOC — Children’s Hospital of Orange County — supporters will walk through Disney California Adventure and Disneyland Park to show their appreciation to the doctors and nurses that have helped many sick kids. The CHOC Walk allows walkers to see the Disneyland Resort in a way that they may not have ever seen it, including favorite characters (in their own walking gear) along the route to cheer on and take pictures with participants.
Though this exciting opportunity is a great way to celebrate and experience one’s love for the Disneyland Resort, the CHOC Walk is magical for a bigger reason than that — the motivating stories of the children of CHOC. Each participant of the CHOC Walk has their own reasons for walking in this fantastic fundraiser, whether they are the friends or family of a CHOC child or are simply showing support for the hospital as a whole. Either way, each story is powerful and motivational. Although the Babes In Disneyland team is taking a year off, two of our contributing writers will be walking this year.
Over the next two days, I will share Randy and Courtney’s stories and hope that they motivate readers as much as they have motivated us to support this cause.
Today is Randy’s day. Randy Crane is our go-to guy for Disneyland Resort history. His Fun Fact Fridays keep us all enveloped in the secrets and stories of the Magic Kingdom. Though Randy originally decided to walk for CHOC to be able to have a new Disneyland Resort experience in 2006, he has continued to participate because of the stories he continues to hear from family and friends of CHOC children — and the memories tied to these stories.
Here is Randy’s story.
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| Randy and his wife walking in the 2011 CHOC Walk. |
I started walking in the CHOC/Disneyland Resort Walk in the Park in 2006 and have participated every year since then. The first year, I did it for only one reason: it was something at Disneyland I hadn’t done. But that first year introduced me to this world of thousands of other walkers, many with amazing stories of a family member or friend that been helped by Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). Often, those stories involved the words, “CHOC saved his/her life.”
Hearing those stories took me back to some of the earliest days of my life. I don’t remember this directly, but my parents have told me about the two times I was in the hospital before I was two years old. You see, I had pneumonia at 10 months old, and double-pneumonia at 18 months old. Both times I was in ICU, in an oxygen tent. More than once during those times, they weren’t sure I would make it.
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| Randy and Boo at the 2011 CHOC Walk. |
I don’t know if I was in a Children’s Hospital at those times, but I know that thousands of children every year are, and I know what incredible work CHOC does to care for them. Several of my friends were either born at CHOC or had a child that CHOC helped. Even more than adults, children who are sick don’t understand why, or what’s happening to them, and hospitals can be a terrifying place. CHOC not only meets their physical needs, they do it in a way that eases their fears and allows them, to whatever extent possible, to still have a way to “be a kid”.
But they can’t do it alone. Because CHOC doesn’t turn away families that can’t afford it, they rely on donors to be able to provide the care and services they do.
I may never have a child who needs CHOC’s services. If I do, I’m glad to know I can count on them. But even if I don’t, countless other families do. The CHOC Walk is a way I can help people I may never meet in a way to know that they are cared for and their child will get the best possible medical care. For both the parents and the child, at a time like that there is nothing greater that I can do.
You, too, can be a part of this chain of care. If you can raise money and walk, please do it. If you can’t, please support those of us who are. People you’ve never met will be grateful to you in a way you probably can’t imagine.
To make a donation in support of Randy, please visit www.chocwalk.net/randycrane.
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