Fred's Footsteps in Bryn Mawr helps families facing huge medical costs for their children
BRYN MAWR, Pa. (CBS) – A Bryn Mawr organization is bridging the financial gaps for families facing overwhelming medical costs for their children.
Maryann Wallace thought she would be looking at her newborn daughter in a crib, not in a neonatal intensive care unit.
"She was born weighing one pound two ounces," Wallace said.
Her daughter, Grace, was born three months early back in September 2021. Wallace and her husband Chris already had little Ryan, who lives with autism and type 1 diabetes.
Chris' job provided the family's only income. But with Grace spending her first seven months of life in the hospital and Ryan's health issues, Chris felt he needed more time at home.
"When you have a child that's in critical condition and you don't know from one day to the next how it's going to go," Wallace explained, "he had to step down."
That left the couple in financial distress and looking for answers, that is until they found a lifeline. The Wallace family is one of hundreds of families who received help from a group in Bryn Mawr called Fred's Footsteps.
The group helps children of all ages "from prematurity, like Grace, all the way up to children graduating high school," Program Director Diane Smith-Hoban said.
She added, the organization helps families with children who have complex medical issues. And it all starts with events like the annual Party in the Yard at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on Saturday, March 9.
"Last year, we raised $350,000, and we were able to support 140 families in the Greater Philadelphia area," Smith-Hoban explained.
While Smith-Hoban stressed the organization does not pay medical bills, leaders offered to help with other expenses like renovations to make homes wheelchair-accessible.
"Often it's the rent or the mortgage, that's the family's biggest bill, but also car insurance – they've got to get back and forth to the hospital – car payments," Smith-Hoban said.
It helped the Wallaces keep their heads above water.
"Fred's Footsteps helped cover our rent while Grace was in the NICU and then even after she came home," Wallace said.
She said the group helps struggling families focus on their children's needs.
"Their family, the home, being a family unit, that's what it's about," she said.
On Friday, Grace and Ryan were both doing well, Chris was back at work, and those small footsteps were helping everyone make great strides.