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Former patient Hayley Orlinski raises $50,000 for Lurie Children’s Hospital
A local girl just made a huge donation to Lurie Children's Hospital, where doctors helped her early in life. Hayley Orlinski and her mom Lori joined us to talk about it.
CHICAGO - A local girl made a huge donation to Lurie Children’s Hospital as a way to give back to the place where doctors helped early in her life.
Hayley Orlinski raised $50,000 for the hospital!
Hayley and her mom, Lori Orlinski, say the original goal was $200, but they far exceeded that.
The goal to raise money for the hospital began in March 2020, when the pandemic began.
"My mom was watching the news, and I overheard that the doctors and nurses were running out of masks and other PPE equipment, so I really wanted to help, but I didn’t know how," Hayley said. "So I ran up to my room and made these friendship bracelets!"
She then told her mom that she wanted to make the bracelets and raise money for one of the hospitals in the area.
Hayley estimated that she made close to 12,000 bracelets!
Lori says that the project took off at a time where people just needed something to believe in. People were also home a lot because of the stay-at-home order and needed a little bit of hope.
"Hayley represented hope," Lori said. "When you look down at these bracelets, they’re colorful, they make you smile."
People were more than happy to buy the bracelets and donate to a great cause. Others even donated supplies to Hayley and helped her make the bracelets.
Earlier in her life, Hayley received help from Lurie Children’s. Hayley was born at the hospital and was in the NICU there.
"This is my way of giving back to them," Hayley said.