Children's Care Fund Testimonial

Grady's Decision

Ryan Smith is the president and founder of Grady’s Decision.

After the birth of premature twins in 2008, and the loss of his son Grady 52 hours later, Ryan was overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and support he received during his NICU journey that he created an organization to pay it forward to others going through similar experiences. Ryan’s vision and leadership has taken this organization from the infancy stage to a volunteer 501(c) (3) organization.

Grady’s Decision partnered with UPMC Hamot Health Foundation in 2022 to provide a housing solution for families traveling from far distances to UPMC Hamot Hospital to see their premature baby or babies. Before 2022, there wasn’t a viable solution other then putting families in hotel rooms far away for the hospital. HHF, Grady’s Decision and EDDEC, along with Erie Insurance, got together and found a solution for apartments downtown near UPMC Hamot Hospital that families could use to accommodate their housing needs. With snow in the winter, and how fragile babies can be when premature, the UPMC Hamot apartments have been a wonderful resource to our families. We couldn’t be more thrilled of our partnership with HHF and EDDEC in providing needed housing in our families' time of need.

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