Children’s of Alabama hospital has long benefited as the featured charity of the Regions Tradition golf tournament. This year, Greystone Golf & Country Club, the Alabama Power Service Organization, Edgar’s Bakery and Regions are working with Cheeriodicals to make the end of tournament week even more special for the hospital patients and their mothers.
Because the tournament ends on Mother’s Day for the first time, Greystone officials thought it would be nice to do something special for mothers. When they thought of the mothers of patients at Children’s and pitched the idea to Cheeriodicals, it started to come into focus, according to Matt Scalici, president of Greystone.
But paying for and assembling boxes for hundreds of patients and their moms would take thousands of dollars and lots of man-hours.
Cheeriodicals and its partners aim to make Mother’s Day special at Children’s of Alabama hospital from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
“Getting this thing funded we thought might be a challenge,” Scalici said. “Really, between Cheeriodicals and Greystone and our three primary sponsors – Regions, Alabama Power Service Organization and Edgar’s Bakery – it’s come together just perfectly.”
Cheeriodicals has a special history with Children’s. The company delivers personalized care packages to patients in hospitals and other facilities. Children’s of Alabama was the first children’s hospital they delivered to eight years ago and the hospital still consults with Cheeriodicals about the types of items that should go into boxes for children.
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Mary Martha Parisher, founder and chief operating officer of Cheeriodicals, said this will be something new for the company.
“We have actually never done an event specific for Mother’s Day, so we had a lot of fun putting the box together,” she said. “The goal on the box was: A mom can’t be at home for Mother’s Day celebration so we’re going to bring the celebration to them at the hospital.”
The items in the boxes will be aimed at providing the moms some pampering and comfort.
“The whole idea was to give them some time while they’re at the hospital to still feel like they’re having a Mother’s Day celebration,” Parisher said.
Emily Hornak, director of Corporate Partnerships at Children’s of Alabama, said although this will be something new for both the hospital and Cheeriodicals, working with the companies involved is familiar.
“It’s wonderful when these partnerships all really do come together for a great cause, which in this case is the moms of patients and then also our patients here at Children’s of Alabama,” she said. “All of the sponsors and partners that are a part of this really do mean so much to the hospital as part of this partnership but also individually as partners. All of them have their own individual part of being involved with Children’s of Alabama in their own unique way and then it’s really remarkable to see all of these pieces to come together for this really unique opportunity of really bringing cheer to patients here at Alabama and to the moms of patients.”
Volunteers from the sponsoring groups will spend the week of the tournament packing and preparing the boxes for the Mother’s Day deliveries.
Hornak said it should be a special day at the hospital.
“I think for the moms, because we’ve never done anything like this before, when they come down and they receive that box, it’s going to really wow them to know that somebody thought so much of them as mothers of patients of children that are here in the hospital to give back to them and to give them something.”
