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Press Contact

Pam Dey
SKIP of New York
601 W. 26th Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10001
212.268.5999
pdey@skipny.org

Drive to Fund External Email Underway

Julia’s Birthday Appeal    

    …because there is no place like home for children to heal and nothing like family to help them flourish.

     To connect is to care, give, take a stand, risk something—your heart, your time, a dream, yourself …and it’s often nowhere near your comfort zone. But, it’s where the answers are. It’s where growth is, and for sure: without it, we’re nowhere.

     It took a lot of connecting to get Julia Mikol home from the hospital in 1981. Born on October 28, 1978 with a rare immune system disorder that left her on life support, the doctors said she’d never leave. But then, from one person to another to a long line of others, Julia’s parents, Margaret and Yves Mikol, uncovered the hope, help and answers that ultimately brought the family home.

     Connected, Julia and her parents did what only one other family in the entire U.S. and no one in the state of New York had yet achieved—moved a child on life support out of the hospital and home to live. Alone, it would not have happened.

     After Julia came home, the connecting continued as Margaret and Yves shared what they’d learned with other parents who longed to get their own sick kids home. SKIP launched in 1983 in fulfillment of what Julia wanted most: to get every sick and developmentally disabled child home from hospitals and institutions.

     Julia lived until she was 7 ½ years old. We celebrate the anniversary of her birthday with this annual appeal in support of her biggest wish. Just as different gifts are given for different birthdays, each “birthday gift for Julia” changes. The goal it serves does not.

     This year, Julia’s Birthday Gift will be devoted to giving SKIP’s 150 case managers external email so they can connect more efficiently with the thousands of families in their care. It is the second phase of our communication initiative. It started with the re-launch of our website, www.skipofny.org which gives us a more immediate and thorough way to connect with our families more globally, to get key information out to them.

     It’s a complicated, cost-intensive process but it is critical, especially now, with programs under siege and demand for our services greater than ever. With help, we will make it happen.    

       If you would like to connect through SKIP with the developmentally disabled and medically fragile children of New York to give them the help they need to live as full lives as possible by supporting this year's Julia Appeal,please click here.