The Children’s Inn at NIH Needs Community’s Support to Feed Families Participating in NIH Clinical Trials
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACTS:
Sonja Luecke, communications manger, The Children’s Inn at NIH
c: 901-340-1975 [email protected]
Mysba Regis, marketing and communications director, The Children’s Inn at NIH
c: 240-274-2101 [email protected]
The Children’s Inn at NIH Needs Community’s Support to Feed Families Participating in NIH Clinical Trials
BETHESDA, Md. (March 18, 2020) – The Children’s Inn at NIH, a nonprofit located on the NIH campus that provides free lodging and support to families of children and young adults with rare and serious diseases participating in clinical research studies at the NIH, is asking for the community’s support in providing meals for its families during the coronavirus outbreak.
The nonprofit houses up to 60 children, young adults and their families at a time who are participating in NIH clinical studies. Residents of The Children’s Inn have a wide range of rare diseases, including difficult-to-treat cancers, autoimmune and autoinflammatory conditions, genetic immune deficiencies, sickle cell disease and many other rare conditions that can leave them vulnerable to infections, including respiratory illnesses like the new coronavirus. To keep vulnerable children and families safe during the COVID-19 outbreak, The Children’s Inn has temporarily suspended all volunteer activities effective March 10, 2020, including its popular volunteer-provided dinners.
To continue to provide dinners most nights of the week, The Children’s Inn’s meal budget has increased significantly.
“The safety of our children and young people always comes first,” says Jennie Lucca, CEO of The Children’s Inn at NIH. “That’s why we are temporarily suspending volunteers and visitors, even though we greatly rely on the support of our amazing, hard-working and very caring community of volunteers, and it’s quite difficult making do without them. We hope that by asking the greater community for support, we can continue to provide all the daily meals we typically do to support our families.”
To help provide meals to children, young adults and their families at The Children’s Inn, please make a donation to The Children’s Inn’s Feeding Families Fund at www.childrensinn.org/feedingfamilies or help stock The Inn’s pantries with needed food and supplies from The Children’s Inn’s wish list: www.childrensinn.org/wishlist.
“By helping support The Children’s Inn’s Feeding Families program, we can all help make this difficult time in these families’ lives just a little easier and support their search for hope in a clinical research study at NIH for their ill children,” Lucca adds.
Located on the NIH campus, The Children’s Inn is a nonprofit hospitality house that provides free lodging and supportive services to children, their families and young adults with rare and serious illnesses whose best hope for a treatment or cure is a clinical trial at the NIH.
The Children’s Inn houses more than 1,500 children and their families every from across the United States and the world free of charge to help reduce the burden of illness on families, make childhood possible today and a cure possible tomorrow. For more information about The Children’s Inn, visit childrensinn.org.