How community, care and connection shaped 2025
While some years feel like they are simply a collection of milestones, for Rocky Mountain Children’s Health Foundation, 2025 was a movement. It was a year shaped not only by new records, but also by people showing up for one another in consistent and deeply human ways.
For RMCHF, every day begins the same: children in a medical crisis, navigating the shock of a new diagnosis, or waking up to another day of battling illness or injury. All the while, behind them are families trying to hold it all together, grasping for everything from money for rent to hope for a better day tomorrow.
At the center of it all, our community kept showing up.
One Million Magical Ounces
One of the most moving testaments to the power of coming together for good came in the form of a simple yet extraordinary gift: human milk.
Our Mothers’ Milk Bank program set an incredible record, receiving one million ounces of donated human milk in a single year. Behind this record were more than 1,200 donors, each making a quiet decision to help babies and families they will likely never meet. Each ounce of donor milk goes to nourish countless medically fragile and premature infants, meaning this collective act of care was more than just a record. It was life-saving.
All that donated milk means Mothers’ Milk Bank was able to distribute over 758,000 ounces of donor milk to hospitals and NICUs across the country, all made possible by altruistic parents wanting to pass some hope and comfort to the next family.
When Care Reaches Beyond Medicine
When a child is in treatment for a medical issue, families often need stability. They are already worried about their kid, and they shouldn’t also have to worry about where their next meal will come from, how they will get to and from the hospital, or how they will pay for housing.
Because of this community, we were able to provide critical support to 2,486 families in 2025. Instead of worrying about essentials, they could focus on being with their children.
But 2025 included more than just the big moments. Smaller acts of comfort provided families with the emotional support they needed to get through the day, things like:
- 3,482 items like diapers, toys, books, and distraction kits that helped kids feel like kids, instead of just patients.
- 3,240 support interactions from facility dogs Posey and Lemon that offered children moments of normalcy and comfort, helping them relax during difficult procedures and long hospital days.
Small but mighty gestures like giving a child a toy to play with or a sweet cuddle from a dog truly make a lasting difference.
How Our Community Became a Safety Net
2025 brought rising challenges for families already navigating some of their hardest days. External pressures like rising housing and food costs, along with the suspension of critical support programs like SNAP, placed overwhelming strain on families already stretched thin.
But our community was there.
At gala tables, in living room cocktail parties, and on sunny sidewalks where children ran lemonade stands with handmade signs urging their neighbors to support other kids, our community stood alongside these families, helping raise critical funds to support our work. Each of these moments, no matter the scale, brought hope to families and helped them feel less alone on the darkest days.
Stories Behind the Numbers
Behind every statistic was a family trying to make it through an impossible chapter.
Oliver’s story is one of them. Born with esophageal atresia, he needed emergency surgery and a long NICU stay. As bills piled up, his parents found themselves overwhelmed. Through Patient and Family Assistance, they received support that allowed them to focus on what mattered most, their child’s recovery.
His mother, Teresa, described it simply: “I feel like there’s a whole village behind us.”
Faith’s story echoes the same truth. Born with Down syndrome and a congenital heart condition, she required early surgery and ongoing care. With her family facing financial strain, support arrived at just the right moment, helping cover essentials so her mother could focus on healing instead of hardship. Today, Faith is thriving, full of energy and joy.
Every time RMCHF provided support, families received more than just financial relief. They got breathing room. Dignity. Peace of mind. And, that counts for far more than numbers ever could.
The Healing Power of Dogs
The Stink Bug Project, our dog adoption and support program, reached a major milestone with over 180 kid-and-dog duos since its inception. In 2025 alone, we matched and trained 10 new Stink Bug dogs, bringing companionship, stability, and joy into some of the hardest medical journeys imaginable.
In June, several Stink Bug families came together for a reunion, sharing laughter, stories, and the special bonds that make this program so meaningful.
New Initiatives for When the Unimaginable Happens
For Sean and Shelley Endsley, being part of this community carries a much deeper meaning. When their son Rowan Glenn passed away after spending his 10 days of life in the NICU, they knew they wanted to give back to the nurses and caregivers who were there for them, and for countless other families facing the same reality.
In 2024, after three years of preparation and fundraising, Rowan’s Zen Den was unveiled in the NICU at HCA HealthONE Rocky Mountain Children’s, offering a space for care teams to rest and briefly step away from the demands of their work.
In 2025, this support expanded through Rowan’s Fund, offering bereavement support for families who have lost a child, along with grief training for the care teams who walk beside them.
It is a powerful reminder that even in the hardest moments, community can say: you are not alone.
What Remains After the Numbers
It would be easy to define 2025 by its statistics. (They are powerful, after all.)
But the deeper truth is quieter.
It’s the mother who can finally sleep because rent was covered.
The child who laughs because a therapy dog curled up beside their hospital bed.
The milk donor who fills a bottle not knowing where it will go, but trusting it will matter.
The family who walks through grief with a community holding them up.
As Executive Director Cathy Sandoval reflected, what makes these accomplishments meaningful is not just what was achieved, but how it was achieved: together.
And as the year closed, one message lingered above all others.
When a community chooses to show up consistently, creatively, and compassionately, it doesn’t just support families in crisis.
It changes what survival feels like.
And it builds something that lasts far beyond a single year.
