Giving Chace and his Uncle a Fighting Chance

Varsylvia has worked at Costco for more than 20 years. She collects donations to support Children’s National Hospital each May. “When I’m talking to customers,” she says, “I tell them, ‘just remember, there might be a day that you need Children’s National, and you want to know that Children’s National is going to be there for you.’”

She would know. In 1990, our neonatologists cared for her son Kenneth after he was born with a hole in his heart. In 2012, her grandson Chace was born with a severe cleft lip, cleft palate and scoliosis. “Doctors at Children’s National gave Chace a fighting chance,” she says. “Now he can speak as clearly as anyone else.”

Chace, now 8, loves to play football and read. His uncle Kenneth is a fitness buff who competes in endurance races. “Watching them make the most of life after such rough starts makes me feel elated,” Varsylvia says. “At Children’s National, it’s all about helping children go on to live happy and productive lives.”