Guest Story: A Bridge Forward
We see nearly 2,000 guests and families over the course of a year who are enduring serious medical challenges. We witness as many ways to respond, heal, and overcome. Sometimes, the coping experience is self-contained, unencumbered by the weight of life’s prior traumas. In other cases, we are not always aware of, nor able to […]
Janessa Returns
“Life is tough but I am tougher.” When we first met Janessa Lussetto from Bridgeport, Nebraska in the fall of 2011, she and her mother Kelly were wearing matching shirts sporting that message. She was one-and-a-half years old at the time. Janessa had accidentally rolled into a campfire pit during a family campout that was […]
Guest Story: A Mother’s Intuition
A mother’s intuition never fails. A life can be turned upside down in a matter of one day. This was the case with Sidney Holland, a two-and-half-year old boy, usually overflowing with energy, laughter, curiosity, and pure joy. He was just not himself and his mother, Netaya McGrath, just knew something was wrong. Her mother’s […]
Guest Story – Touching the Heartland
Twenty-seven-year-old Brittany was not feeling particularly well when she and her family left their home in Kansas City, Missouri in early July. The family had selected a time-share resort in Angels Camp, California, for its vacation destination. The family departed the heartland of America and set sights on the rich history in the heart of […]
Guest Story: Sweet Dulce
Not many of us can actually say that we have met a sweet miracle child. Dulce Moreno-Mendez is a beautiful nine-year-old girl who lives in the rural town of Dorris in Siskiyou County, California, just miles from the Oregon border. Since October 2015, Kiwanis Family House has welcomed Dulce and her mom, Cynthia, seven times. […]
Guest Story: An Unlucky Day
March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day. It is a day that is often full of boisterous celebrations. Many consider it a “lucky” day. For Briceida Lopez and her boyfriend, Jose Solis, that is not the case. March 17, 2018 was a decidedly unlucky day for them. It was a day that they will never forget, […]
Guest Story | Charlie Wagner Update
This past week, Julie Davis and her son, Charlie Wagner, checked into Kiwanis Family House for a one-night’s stay. We last saw Charlie in 2013 as a happy three-year-old boy. We are pleased to share an update with all of you. In December 2009, Julie went in for a routine ultrasound appointment at 29 weeks […]
Crisis Doesn’t Take A Holiday | Sandy’s Story
Medical crisis is so disruptive of the routines of our lives. Sandy is a retired nurse. She lives in Grant’s Pass, Oregon. In the past 26 months (since October 2015), Sandy has stayed at Kiwanis Family House on 31 occasions. Each time she has made the long drive from home to Sacramento, to support and […]
Paying It Forward
Over the weekend, we received the following message on our Kiwanis Family House Facebook page: ***** Hi! A little over seven years ago, my mom and I spent a night at the Kiwanis House. We spent the night because the next morning I had a doctor’s appointment at Shriners […]
Our Life Went Into Free-Fall | One Family’s Story
At the family’s request, we are neither using real names nor showing photos of family members in this story. In mid-October 2017, Maria was in Napa County serving as an in-home caretaker for an elderly woman. Multiple wildfires were ravaging the surrounding region and the two women were forced to evacuate the home. They […]
