For parents of children undergoing surgery at Miami Children’s Hospital, Donna Huck is the comforting liaison who calls the operating room to check on their child.

For bored young patients, she has been the one who brings them a book or reads to them. For newborns in intensive care, she has been there to rock and feed them. For doctors and nurses, she’s a volunteer who bakes cookies every December. And behind the scenes, she has chaired the hospital’s board, helped raise more than $2 million, and currently heads the U.S. Radio Lollipop organization, which helps establish in-house radio stations at children’s hospitals. In short, for the past 22 years, Huck has been there for Miami Children’s.

Huck fits in her 20 hours a week of volunteer activities along with self-employment as a headhunter for law firms and a partner in a clothing company that puts on trunk shows.

”She has a lot of intuitive sense about administrative responsibilities and can also give personal care to people in distress,” said Lynn Heyman, the hospital’s director of community and volunteer resources. “She’s also always willing to take on the big jobs. As volunteer director, you really try not to burn people out, but she never seems to get burned out.”

Huck is a fifth-generation Floridian who moved to Miami 22 years ago. Almost immediately, she went to Miami Children’s to volunteer. Previously, she had volunteered with the Lighthouse for the Blind, but she decided she wanted to work with children. ”Adults, quite frankly, can be a little difficult as they get older,” she said.

But before long, Huck’s volunteer duties expanded to involve adults. In 1982, she became a founding member of the Miami Children’s Hospital Foundation Community Council, a group that has raised more than $2 million. She served on the hospital’s board from 1986 to 1992, and again in 1997 and 1998, acting as chairman in 1991.

Seven years ago, Miami Children’s became the first U.S. hospital to broadcast Radio Lollipop, a 24-7 service for young patients that includes three days of live programming per week. Children can listen on their hospital televisions and take part in interactive programming. Huck chairs the U.S. Radio Lollipop board and helped open the second station in a Houston hospital.

In another pioneering role, she was one of the first liaisons between staff and parents in the surgical waiting room.

”The worst thing in the world is to sit in a hospital and not know what’s happening,” Huck said. So, every Thursday from 8 a.m. to noon, she sits with parents, occasionally calling the operating room and relaying any news. ‘Mostly, it’s `The doctor’s still working and the patient is stable,’ ” she said — but any word is a comfort to anxious mothers and fathers. She also knows when to let others do the talking.

“All of us have it in us to do something for other people, and if we don’t, there’s something wrong. I think what makes me a good volunteer is that I have the ability to listen,” Huck said.

(original story (c) Miami Herald)

Would you dare drop out of a small aeroplane at 10,000 feet and freefall at 220 mph back to earth in six minutes? You would if your name is Lorraine Hickson.

Lorraine who works for the Holiday Inn at Preston recently did the daring tandem parachute jump in aid of Radio Lollipop Manchester. Lorraine informed Julie Edwards’s, wife of Carl our Manchester Trustee, at the time of her daring feat. Julia asked if Lorraine would consider raising funds for Radio Lollipop and arranged a meeting with Carl. At the meeting Lorraine agreed that Radio Lollipop was a very worthwhile cause, as she only wanted to raise funds for a children’s charity. Lorraine spoke to Marcus Brall, General Manager of the Holiday Inn, and asked if we could place our Serious Fun leaflets in each hotel bedroom to the raise our profile of the charity in the region. Marcus agreed and one thousand leaflets were distributed over a four-week period.

The big day arrived and after a thirty minute briefing Lorraine boarded the six-man plane, which soared to 10,000 feet. Lorraine said “I was quite nervous at first and it was very cold as the door was open but once we left the plane it was a fantastic experience and I would love to do it again”. Lorraine raised a fantastic £620 and all the money raised will be used to buy competition prizes for the children and teenagers when we are on the wards over the next three months. Lollipop thanks Lorraine, Marcus and the Holiday Inn for their support.

If you think you could do something as daring or different to raise funds for Radio Lollipop then please contact us. Go on – meet the challenge and join Lorraine, it could be Serious Fun!