A little girl from Santa Ana is helping to bring smiles to children in local hospitals

UnitedHealthcare Brings Smiles and ‘Grins to Go’ Bags to Children in Local Hospitals

Working with the UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation to help children and families in need, volunteers assembled and delivered 230 Grins to Go bags, which were filled with an assortment of popular toys and activities, including Santa Ana resident Tessa Adams, 6-years-old, who is a recipient of the UHC Children’s Foundation grant.

It’s tough to be in the hospital, especially if you’re a child. But the day was brightened for a few children when UnitedHealthcare employees delivered “Grins to Go” bags to children at Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach, Children’s Hospital of Orange County, and the Ronald McDonald Houses in Long Beach and Orange County. Working with the UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation to help children and families in need, over 120 volunteers assembled and delivered 230 Grins to Go bags, which were filled with an assortment of popular toys and activities.

“Donations like this are so important to the children and families who are in our local hospitals,” said Robert Falkenberg, CEO of UnitedHealthcare of California. “It gives them an opportunity to be a child and it provides them an opportunity for distraction, even for a minute, to take away from what they may be going through. It also provides a meaningful opportunity for our teams to give back to the communities we serve.”

The “Grins to Go” activity bags program is part of UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation’s (UHCCF) mission to provide grants to help families with children that have medical needs not covered or not fully covered by their commercial health insurance plan. For each child who receives a dose of happiness in receiving a Grins to Go bag while they are in the hospital, another child will also be impacted through a UHCCF medical grant. These bags are made possible through the funds raised by this program and the generosity of many local UnitedHealthcare employees in Southern California.

Since 2007, the UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation has given over 17,000 grants to families – valued at more than 43 million dollars. Families do not need to have insurance through UnitedHealthcare to be eligible for a child medical grant.