Caiden’s Hope was created after Caiden Call was born premature and was isolated to a neonatal intensive care unit.[/caption]

Jennifer Call welcomed her son, Caiden Call, into the world on January 31, 2010 under circumstances many mothers fear—Caiden was premature and needed to be transported to a hospital 60 miles from her home in Ventura, California.

The doctors told Jennifer not to get too attached to her newborn son—they said he very possibly could not survive long after birth.

Caiden was flown to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, and Jennifer and her parents, Eddie and Terry Call, drove the 60 miles to be by his side.

With a child in such critical condition, Caiden’s family refused to leave Los Angeles and drive to their home each night. The family was able to stay at a nearby hotel owned by the hospital for three days, but the accommodations came with a hefty price tag.

Meanwhile, 1,600 miles away in The Woodlands, Wayne and Sharleen Keller were at home hoping for the best for the grandson of their close friends, Eddie and Terry.

“It was what they went through that gave us the idea for Caiden’s Hope,” Wayne said.

While the most important issue at hand was Caiden’s health, there was still the question of how the Call family could stay as close to him as possible, Wayne said.

The family was suffering financially, and the Keller’s realized they were likely not the only family to experience this stress in a time of such desperation, he said.

When Caiden was released from the hospital, Eddie, Terry, Wayne and Sharleen got to work to form a charity in his namesake. Caiden’s Hope was formed in 2010.

“Since [our start], we’ve helped 230 families in 26 states,” Wayne said.

The organization works to make a potentially difficult situation for families a bit easier by ensuring they can stay nearby a child in the NICU by providing them with hotel rooms and assisting with transportation costs through gas cards, Wayne said.

“We’re like the little bridge between when the baby is admitted to the hospital and the time the family is able to apply for and receive any government funding or assistance,” Wayne said.

The organization strives to one day have enough funding to assist any family’s needs, at any time, according to the four founders of Caiden’s Hope.

“We want to help as many families as we possibly can in all 50 states, and we’re halfway there,” Wayne said.

Caiden’s Hope, PO Box 8472, The Woodlands, 713-444-3412, www.caidenshope.org