Delivering cheer

by

Sean Palmer paced the hospital halls.

He had been there for days and was constantly worried, but he still paused often to talk with doctors, nurses and other parents. Often, he’d stop at his son’s incubator.

In 2003, they all shared space in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Tucson Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz., the hospital where Palmer’s second and third children – twins – were born. At four and a half pounds, his daughter Sophia was completely healthy, Palmer said. But his son, Joseph was beginning a battle that would last 10 weeks.

“His lungs weren’t developed,” Palmer said. “Through the course of staying there, he died several times. It was horrific.”

The family fought alongside Joseph, and in time, Joseph was cleared to come home. Palmer called it “one of the most wonderful days of his life,” but the feeling soon turned bittersweet. He thought about the doctors and nurses in the NICU who don’t always get to send a child home, or the parents who don’t get to take them.

Ten years later, Palmer, now 44, uses that realization as a motivator for an unlikely partnership, one that’s brought smiles to the faces of more than 2,500 children across the Southeast. As the owner of MoveDaddy.com, a Hoover-based company, he’s provided free transportation service for five Children’s Cheeriodicals Days, special events organized by the company Cheeriodicals to bring gifts to every child receiving care in area hospitals.

Gary and Mary Martha Parisher, a couple from Mt Laurel, founded Cheeriodicals in 2011. The company provides upscale, bright green gift boxes that hold current magazine issues and can be shipped anywhere – including individual hospital rooms. Mary Martha was a corporate attorney and Gary a sales representative for a biotechnology company when they stumbled onto the niche in the market.

One day when they were both working from home, Mary Martha tried to order a fishing magazine from the gift shop of a hospital in Houston and have it delivered to her uncle’s room. The shop told her not only did they not carry the magazine, but they also didn’t send items to patients.

“She looked at me and said, ‘Can you believe I can’t get magazines delivered at one of the biggest cancer treatment hospitals in North America?,” Gary said.

Gary researched other large delivery companies and found that none offered magazines as a focus, so the couple launched Cheeriodicals, a business they believed could hand-deliver smiles. They were right.

The company started by delivering its gift boxes to hospital rooms. Soon, though, Gary said he saw the disparity that exists between patients.

“Parents would send boxes to their children, but in the room next door that child’s parents can’t even afford gas to go visit,” Gary said. “I thought, why don’t we build a day where we recruit a corporate sponsor to give to every child. We’ll make an event out of it.”

Soon, Children’s Cheeriodicals Days were born. Sponsored by Northwestern Mutual of Alabama, the first was held at Children’s Hospital of Alabama in March 2012. That day, teams handed out 238 children’s Cheeriodicals – one for every child in the hospital. And they were all delivered for free by MoveDaddy.com.

“When I found Cheeriodicals, I knew it was the perfect fit for me and my company,” Palmer said. “Being involved changes my employees. They have greater morale. They love they can be part of it. You will see grown men that hand-deliver these gifts watch children open them and open and walk out in tears.”

Since then, Palmer, his wife Kim and MoveDaddy.com employees have donated their services to other Children’s Cheeriodical Days in New Orleans, St. Louis, Atlanta and Nashville, as well as to the Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham.

“My goal is to one day look up at my wall and see every logo of every children’s hospital, and know that I’ve done an event, in partnership with these really cool companies, at all of them,” he said. “My belief is that no matter how successful you are or how much money make, if you aren’t giving back you have no value to your community.”

Gary said much of the success in starting Children’s Cheeriodical Days can be attributed to Palmer’s contributions, but it’s still Palmer’s son, Joseph, and the feeling Palmer had the day Joseph came home that roots him to the charity.

“At St. Jude’s in Memphis, I remember seeing a father pulling a wagon with child laying in it,” Palmer said. “As a father, I knew that father was never leaving the hospital with his child. I was watching some of their last days together.

“It was a life-changing event. It made me realize how powerful time together is, no matter where.”