Great Clips Campaign is here!

Since the beginning of the Great Clips & CMN partnership in 2004, Atlanta Area Great Clips have raised over $900,000 benefiting Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. This year, their goal is to raise $100,000 (or more) to hit $1 Million in cumulative giving. Visit your local Great Clips and be sure to say YES when asked to donate at the register. Your donations help make miracles happen each and every day in our hospitals. By giving to your local CMN hospital, you are able to help fund programs such as Robotics which have changed the lives of many of our patients, like John:

Before he was born, John was diagnosed with myelomeningocele spina bifida. “The doctors prepared us for the worst: he could have significant brain damage, as well as no use of his legs or anything below his belly button,” says Stephanie.

John was transferred to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta immediately after birth and spent his first day of life in surgery to repair an opening in his spine. “We spent two weeks in the NICU,” says Stephanie. “We were so well educated and came home with a support system around us to help us start this new adventure.”

As the years passed, John grew and met key milestones, and his parent’s fears subsided. “We could see from the beginning that many of the things that we were prepared for were not the reality for John,” says Stephanie. “We were seeing movement and things that they did not think he would be able to do.”

Therapists at Children’s quickly saw John’s potential as well. “John has this quiet confidence,” says physical therapist Erin Eggebrecht. “He is now standing up on his own and walking pretty much wherever he wants to, when he wants to.”

John’s parents credit the many resources available at Children’s and his extracurricular activities – including wheelchair basketball and horseback riding — for his progress and his confidence. “He really doesn’t see himself as being different,” says Stephanie. “Even with as much as he’s endured, there’s a contentedness about him. He thrives where he is.”

To hear more about John’s story or to learn more about Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, please visit www.choa.org/cmn