Ace Hardware holiday round up campaign helps change local kids’ futures

When you visit Ace Hardware this holiday season, make your purchase count by rounding up your change. It’s the Ace Hardware Holiday Round Up for Kids Campaign, which runs now through Dec. 24. Benefitting Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMN), all donations made at local stores support UC Davis Children’s Hospital, the area’s only CMN hospital.

Rounding up your purchase to the nearest dollar is an easy way to help families and kids in your community. Funds raised benefit pediatric patients in UC Davis Health’s 33-county service area.

One of those patients is Avery Cunha, who almost drowned when she was just 19 months old. Avery was rushed to the UC Davis Pediatric and Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. This state-of-the-art facility, which was expanded with CMN donations, provides care for the most critically ill and injured children. The PICU treats infants, children and adolescents who experience life-threatening infectious diseases or traumatic injuries, as Avery did.

Once Avery was stabilized, she began intensive physical, occupational and speech therapy. Now five years old, Avery is as precocious and joyful as she was before that traumatic day she fell in the pool.

“Ace Hardware takes fundraising for kids like Avery seriously,” said Michelle Thompson, assistant director of development for CMN at UC Davis. “One of our local stores led the nation in fundraising during a recent campaign, so team members are eager to get back at it. They’re in it for the kids and it shows.”