What are you doing?
Just checking out your teeth, huh?
-I'm trying to take it out.
-Nine year old Hailee Makuch can't wait to lose another tooth.
-That looks like it’s sewed.
Definitely.
I like this chair.
Just like so many other nine year olds,
Hailee is full of joy.
(Hailee makes cat noise)
But Hailee's journey has not been like other kids.
At three years old, she often complained of leg and neck pain.
One day things got so bad she couldn't walk or move.
-We were in the hospital for about a week and they were doing just like every test
under the sun to try to figure out what was going on with her body.
(♪♪)
-Within days, doctors determined
Hailee had a rare genetic condition with no cure.
-The disease is called Morquio A
and basically, her body doesn't make the enzyme that we all have.
-Let me talk
-that helps to
Marcoscopic... morcoscopic sarcoidosis.
-Mucopolysaccharidosis
-Sorry.
(whispers)
-So her body doesn't make the enzyme that everybody else has.
Breaks down cellular waste and gets it out of our body
so it accumulates in her bones and her organs and her soft tissue.
Hailee needs weekly life saving treatments for the rest of her life,
each one costing nearly $30,000.
When Hailee's dad brought her to the E.R., he had just lost his job.
The family is grateful for Seattle Children's Hospital’s
Uncompensated Care Fund.
-You see all the tests that are being ordered,
and you just think in your head like, god, how much is this going to cost?
And it's terrifying to have to think about that stuff
when your child is sick in the hospital.
And so there is just no way,
that we would have survived, without Uncompensated Care.
(♪♪)
-Ready to come in?
(♪♪)
-The work that happens inside this unassuming warehouse
is part of an annual fundraiser that helps patients like Hailee.
-I love Christmas.
-The volunteers here with the Seattle Festival of Trees Guild spend
countless hours designing Christmas trees to raise money for the hospital's
Uncompensated Care Fund and Seattle Children's Autism Center.
It's work they believe in.
-Well, the reason I do this is because, having been a student nurse at Seattle
Children's Hospital, it was incredible to see
the quality and of care and caring.
-Dottie Greenwood has been volunteering with the festival for more than 40 years.
-It's an addiction. (laughs)
And I have to confess, it is.
So, I have several at home and I love doing them.
And my car is is so full of glitter that you can't get rid of it.
(laughs)
It won't come out.
-She says the team works year round on the trees, which individuals
and businesses can purchase for a minimum donation of $4,200.
-This is just really gratifying for me.
I love it.
(♪♪)
Guild members pour their hearts into this work.
And it all comes to life each year at the Fairmont
Olympic Hotel from late November to early December.
The fundraiser also includes a gala event
with a live and silent auction.
-It's so heartwarming to be at the gala and read the signs on the trees
that tell you their story and how they benefited from
the funds that we are working all year to raise.
-Seeing the people at the event and and listen,
you just kind of listening to the conversation
and as you're going around and there for a good reason.
And that's the big thing is the Children's part of it.
-Each tree is
dedicated to a Children's Hospital patient.
Hailee is being honored this year, and so is a five-year-old
twin boy named Tucker.
-Within a few hours of Tucker being born, it was apparent there were other issues.
Amy McAfee's
son, Tucker, was born with a heart defect and other serious health issues.
He spent most of his first year at children's.
-We learned that he had, what's called esophageal atresia, along with, tracheal
esophageal fistula, EA/TEF, and some other things.
He has, thumb dysplasia.
He has some differences in his vertebrae.
And so it's all part of, an association
they call VACTERL that related to the heart defect.
So a series of birth defects.
So bit of a surprise.
-Tucker has had five major surgeries.
He still faces some significant health challenges,
but his family credits Children's for saving his life
and helping them all get through such a difficult process.
-They take care of the parents, too, you know?
They're there for the kids,
but they really helped us through that whole experience.
(♪♪)
-Both families say having their children featured
at the Seattle Festival of Trees brings them a lot of joy.
They're thrilled to be part of such an important event
that is helping to save even more precious lives.
-We've never been to the Festival of Trees,
always heard about it, and oh gosh, I’m looking forward to it.
-It's been an honor, to know that people
care enough, about her story, that people care enough about other kids
with medical complexities to want to give, and to want to help these families.
Be able to take care of their kids the best they can.
-What grade would you get at Seattle Children's?
-Yeah, I would give it, like A-plus.
plus plus plus plus infinity plus plus smiley face
triple plus smiley face.
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