My daughter, Barbara, is three and a half, and she is one tough, funny, and at times demanding broad (Daddy…I NEED all of my toys in my bed before I can fall asleep…)
That’s my superhero at just one day old..
She’s also a CHD superhero. For those of you that don’t know what that means, she was born with a congenital heart defect and needed open-heart surgery when she was just three days old to save her life. On top of that, she threw in a hernia repair surgery earlier this month. So yeah, she’s tough.
Barbara’s medical condition started as (and still is) one of the biggest challenges in our lives. In some ways, it has also become one of the biggest strengths. My wife and I have now become incredibly passionate about raising money and awareness for congenital heart defects.
With an upcoming partnership with Honda approaching, my wife had the great idea of having dads giving back and “doing good” while using Honda Odyssey minivans.
Once we had these glorious minivans within grasp, I knew that we had to do something for CHDs.
Now that my daughter is old enough to understand things such as “donating money,” I wanted her and her cousins to be a part of the experience of “doing good” for others.
We used two Honda Odysseys to create the greatest lemonade stand of all time. We bought 100 red balloons and lollipops, and gave them and all of the lemonade away for free. Donations were optional, and everything that was donated went to our favorite CHD cause.
Honda also donated $1 for every cup of lemonade that was drunk, so in the end we raised $255 for charity. More importantly, we taught our kids about charity, donation, and helping others.
Thank you, Honda for this opportunity, and parents, please share this video with your kids, so they can learn a little bit about “growing up with heart.”
*** Disclaimer: Life of Dad and National Fatherhood Initiative were paid by Honda to create these videos. And we’re glad that we were, because Honda helped us donate money to important causes, such as the research of congenital heart defects.