25-Years of Talent and Dedication Part II

By Karl Maurer

I first learned of Almost Home Kids many years ago; in fact, when the organization was in its early days and named “COACH*”. Even as a member of the Family Advisory Board at Children’s Memorial Hospital, where my son was being treated, I had no idea what they really did, but knew they were a big help to families at the hospital. When I learned about their transitional services for kids who are well enough to leave the hospital, but not ready to go home, I thought it was brilliant and introduced my friend Katie Weideman who is a philanthropic consultant, to the staff. She helped to revisit the name and facilitate the eventual change to the wonderfully inspiring “Almost Home Kids.”

As an investment professional and donor, what I appreciate most about Almost Home Kids (AHK) is their ability to optimize donations to have the maximum positive impact on the health care system, while delivering high quality services to clients and their families. AHK creates enormous leverage by freeing up hospital rooms for kids who are sick and who couldn’t otherwise be admitted and generates cost savings at the hospital from better utilization of those rooms. Because of this, I feel like our donations have a solid “return on investment.”  

On a different “note”, I’ve played guitar since childhood and my specialty is blues music. Along with bass player Mitch Straeffer, we often entertain kids and their families with live acoustic blues classics at Lurie Children’s Hospital, Misericordia, Shriners, Ronald McDonald House, and AHK. It’s great fun to see the kids joining in and moving in time to the tambourines and maracas. It gets a bit wild sometimes, but that’s ok.   

There should be a thousand places like AHK across the country. I can make the case that through the efficiencies they generate, they would all pay for themselves, but AHK still needs your financial support. We encourage everyone with an interest in effectively delivered health care services for children with complex medical needs to support Almost Home Kids.

*COACH, Coordinating Action for Children’s Care.

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