To contribute to the (Miss)ter Union fundraiser for PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center’s Holtzman Twins Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, visit the event’s GoFundMe website, www.gofundme.com/missterunion.
The teenagers sitting in the waiting area at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center didn’t have any firsthand experience with the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.
They weren’t patients of the NICU, nor were their siblings. They had never visited the unit, officially named the Holtzman Twins Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where premature babies may receive care for weeks or months.
But the teens have impacted the lives of many of the hospital’s tiniest patients.
Three years ago, a handful of students at Union High School partnered with the hospital to raise money for the NICU. They held fundraisers and asked businesses for donations. At the end of the effort, they hosted a Mr. Union pageant and crowned a winner — the top fundraiser. Together, the five contestants raised $6,000.
Since then, the high school students’ involvement with the NICU has grown.
They’ve raised more than $30,000 for the hospital and are striving to raise three times that much this year. They spend their evenings volunteering in the unit, washing laundry, answering phones and stocking supplies. And they take pride in their contributions to the local hospital.
“We know what this NICU means to our community,” said Nolan Henry, a senior at Union High School.
Last year, Henry won the Mr. Union pageant after raising $16,000 for the NICU. He and the pageant’s eight other participants raised $25,000 with the help of an anonymous donor who matched all donations.
This year, the pageant is also open to junior girls at the school and, as such, has been renamed (Miss)ter Union.
High schools across Clark County host similar pageants each year to raise money for different causes. Many choose to donate money to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland.
Last week, some of the contestants from last year’s Mr. Union pageant and those participating in this year’s event got to see the result of their fundraising efforts during a tour of the NICU.
The hospital used the $25,000 raised last year to purchase a new piece of technology for the NICU called the Brainz Monitor. The monitor allows NICU staff to continuously monitor a baby’s brain activity, watching for seizures, said Dr. John Evered, a neonatologist and medical director of the NICU.
“This has really helped us take care of a lot of babies,” he said.
Before birth, a baby receives oxygen through the placenta. Sometimes the umbilical cord kinks or the placenta separates too soon, depriving the baby of oxygen, Evered explained. When that happens, the newborn infant will often have a period of time where he or she is at risk for seizures, he said.
The problem, Evered said, is babies don’t show the same signs of seizure as adults. A baby experiencing a seizure may just roll its eyes or smack its lips, he said.
The Brainz Monitor allows the NICU staff to monitor the brain waves of babies they suspect are having seizures. Then, the staff can medicate the baby and monitor the effectiveness of the treatment, said Melanie Fain, nurse manager of the NICU. Prior to obtaining the monitor, those babies were transferred to Portland hospitals for monitoring, she said.
This year, the hospital hopes to use the money raised by the students to enhance the NICU’s services. The hospital wants to add music therapy, meditation and yoga programs for parents who may spend several months at the hospital.
The hospital is also interested in adding new technology to make NICU rooms quieter, such as noise meters and equipment with alarms that can be silenced.
The Union students were quick to jump on board.
“It think people forget the parents are coming here every day,” said Cassidy Moe, a junior at Union. “It’s important to make it as easy as possible, given the circumstances.”
The students want to do whatever they can to best equip the hospital to serve the community, she said.
“I feel really blessed to say we’re partnering with them, and they’re partnering with us,” Fain said.
“Sometimes you hear about people not having faith in our future,” she added. “I feel like the future is in these kids’ hands. Their generosity, their giving spirit — I have a lot of confidence for the future.”
