CLEARFIELD – Hundreds gathered not only to take game show chances for prizes, but also to help change the lives of critically ill or disabled children during Brady’s Smile Inc.’s seventh annual Color the Night fundraiser on Saturday at the Expo I Building at the Clearfield Driving Park.
Brady’s Smile is a children’s-based charitable organization, which Matt and Annie Hinton established in memory, love and honor of their son, Brady, who passed away on his second birthday in 2008. The charity’s name was inspired by the couple’s son who smiled, although his short life was medically difficult.
The mission of Brady’s Smile is to help make life easier in the newborn and pediatric intensive care units (ICUs) not only for patients, but also for their families. The charity currently serves 15 hospitals in seven states, including Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont and Virginia.
Thanks to the long-term support from their donors, Matt and Annie have delivered more than 14,000 comfort bags and more than 13,000 “Brady Blankets” to little patients in hospital ICUs. The couple has also delivered 8,000 meals to families at hospitals and equipped bedsides with music for newborns.
Through Brady’s Smile, Matt and Annie have donated funds and programs valued at more than $110,000 to partner hospitals in Pennsylvania. More specifically, the couple has donated more than $40,000 to the Penn Highlands campuses in Clearfield and DuBois, more than $57,000 to the Children’s Hospital Pittsburgh and more than $4,000 to Children’s Hospital Philadelphia.
Reflecting back exactly 11 years, Matt said he married Annie here in Clearfield. “…If someone back then would have told me: ‘You’re going to have a beautiful son who will pass away on his second birthday, you will start a charity in his name and you will touch the lives of more than 48,000 people in seven years,’ I would have told them: ‘You are crazy,’” he said.
Over the years, people have approached Matt and Annie and expressed sadness because of the loss of their son, he said. However, he described the couple as “two of the most blessed people in the world,” which has inspired them to help others who aren’t as blessed as them.
Matt shared that Brady’s Smile has more recently started helping individuals and families. He told the story of a young girl, Emily, in Florida, who had just as many problems as Brady; her biggest problem, however, was an inability to digest food. Emily, he said, visited every doctor and specialist imaginable in Florida.
He said none of the doctors could diagnose the girl’s digestive problems. Her family eventually found a specialized center in Cincinnati, Ohio, which helps find cures for very rare digestive diseases. “But her insurance wouldn’t cover the costs because she had no diagnosis,” he said.
The girl’s family, Matt said, reached out to Brady’s Smile. He said the charity helped the family with costs for flying to Cincinnati, Ohio and staying in a hotel, as well as for food for a couple of days. Later on Matt said he got a call from Emily’s mother who was in tears because they’d found a “medical needle in a haystack” with a diagnosis.
This past week, the girl had surgery and she’s currently recovering well. “There are two heroes in this story – the amazing doctors doing the work and all of the supporters [of Brady’s Smile]. Annie and I just funnel money and programs. It’s your donations that make it possible and allow us to bring our son’s memory to life every day of our lives.”
Annie said she and Matt had dedicated the past seven years to making lives easier for children in hospital ICUs with their comfort bags, blankets, bedside music and meals program. But she said that Color the Night 7 would be a very memorable event for the couple.
She said that the late Dr. Gregory Sheffo was instrumental in helping the couple create a vision for Brady’s Smile and its impact in Clearfield. She said it was their vision to bring an all-encompassing therapy program to meet the needs of children in Clearfield and the surrounding areas.
Over the past year, she said that Brady’s Smile has worked alongside Cen-Clear Child Services Inc. to bring their vision to fruition. Cen-Clear, she said, will operate a sensory-integration therapy clinic for children with the funding for it coming from Brady’s Smile.
Matt and Annie then presented representatives from Cen-Clear with a check for $12,092 for the clinic. “Instead of going to Harrisburg, Pittsburgh or Danville, you’ll just go down the road,” said Annie, noting the clinic is expected to help anywhere from 4,000 to 15,000 children in Clearfield, Centre, Jefferson and Elk counties.
“We, at Brady’s Smile, are nothing without all of you,” said Annie, “… and we want to continue to have an impact right here in Clearfield, where we love to be.”
