I recently made a website that I donated to help with a funds appeal for a little 6-year old girl named Chelsea White.
Chelsea was born with a rare condition (Arterial Venous Malformation (AVM) in the right hemisphere of her brain) and needs a series of 5 operations in California to give her a better quality of life and reduce risks of death due to complications from her condition. This type of risky surgery is not available ANYWHERE in Canada. MSI was covering Chelsea’s trip, but MSI would not cover any expenses for a guardian to accompany the little girl on her 6 week stay in California.
Chelsea’s parents are working hard to make ends meet so coming up with money for the Mom, Shannon, to spend 6 weeks in California while her daughter was in hospital was overwhelming. The community had come together and were holding loads of great fundraisers.
I didn’t know Chelsea or her family personally, but after my sister told me her story I knew I wanted to get involved. So I made a website (my sister, Heidi Jirotka, a professional photographer took the pictures used on the site) to explain Chelsea’s story and ask for donations.
I knew that a website would enable us to get the word out about Chelsea’s plight but I had no idea how fast it would bring attention. Within less than a week the site had almost 2,000 hits from 8 different countries and people were digging deep to help out this family.
Chelsea’s Mom was interviewed for radio and TV six times in just over a week. She was on CBC National TV news (via satellite from California) and was the lead story on CBC radio news.
Within five days of the site going live, NDP government member, Gary Ramey, contacted Shannon to let her know that guardians will now be covered when accompanying a child out of province if that service is not available within the province! The new provision will cover airfare and upto $125 a day for accommodations. The change was to be backdated to June 1, 2011, allowing the coverage to be in effect before Chelsea’s trip.
Wow! Shannon was not lobbying for this, no-one was lobbying for this connected to this case, it just happened … certainly because of all the attention in the news. Shannon is most happy for the parents who will be coming up behind her. They won’t need to spend energy worrying about where the money is coming from… instead they can concentrate on their sick child.
Whew! I didn’t mean to write this big post. What I MEANT to share was a compliment that I got from a complete stranger regarding the website I had made for Chelsea..
Hello,
I just wanted to comment on the lovely job you did for Chelsea White’s website. Not only is it very nice looking, but you made it so easy to donate by offering all those options and the info to go with them. As a web designer myself, I could see the thought you put into it, so I wanted to let you know it paid off.
Regards,
Anna MacD.
Isn’t that lovely!?! So, so lovely?! It made my day! Such a nice compliment that a complete stranger (and a fellow web designer at that!) would take the time to email me. Wonderful!
In case you would like to read Chelsea’s story, this is the original site:
Chelsea White- original site
The site edited after government funding policy was changed:
Chelsea White – site updated after government funding
Chelsea and her mother, Shannon, are in California as I type this. When I was building the website, I met Chelsea, her Mom and her little brother. Chelsea was as sweet as any kid could ever be, just adorable, and her mom, Shannon, was very weepy and thankful… she must be emotionally exhausted as Chelsea’s condition has been a ticking-time-bomb since the day she was born. Chelsea’s AMV mass is one of the largest on record and she is one of the youngest people ever presenting.
As I say, they are in California now and I think of them everyday and hope all goes well for them. Little 6-year old Chelsea is to have the first of her five operations on June 13th. She’s a brave little girl and my heart aches for her family. I look forward to their safe and happy return to Nova Scotia sometime in late July.
