Lukas’ Fund donated kiosks for parents to Grady Memorial. The kiosks are for parents to learn to help educate parents about their child’s journey in the neonatal intensive care units.
By KAYA POLACK – Staff Writer
Love Notes for Lukas is a charity event hosted in Athens that’s goals are to inform the community about the needs of infants and the neonatal intensive care units.
When they entered the neonatal intensive care unit at Athens Regional Medical Center, Drs. Mark Ebell and Laura Bierema were greeted by the unnerving whistles and beeps of the distinctive medical technology. Their son, Lukas, lay in an incubator, his premature body in a diaper too big.
“The primary goal of (Love Notes for Lukas) is less about fundraising and more about what we call ‘mind raising,’ or awareness raising and making people aware of the needs of these infants in the NICU,” Ebell said. “My wife and I had the opportunity to spend five and a half weeks at (Lukas’) bedside while he was alive, and we saw that there were really important needs not being met at either hospital.”
With necessities for families visiting the NICU absent, Ebell and Bierema wanted to make sure other infants and parents do not suffer from the inconveniences of the infant’s needs not being met.
“They didn’t even have the right size diaper for someone as small as Lukas at Grady,” Ebell said. “We wanted to make sure that there was a way for all of the infants at Grady and Regional to have access to those kind of things.”
Love Notes for Lukas is an annual musical competition at Hendershot’s Coffee, located at 237 Prince Ave. Many Love Notes participants are Clarke County School District students.
“We have been doing (Love Notes for Lukas) for three or four years now at Hendershot’s, and I think it was really because–since Lukas was a child–we wanted young people involved in the idea of giving back to the community,” Ebell said. “The overall idea was to make something positive out of something that was very difficult and negative and not let his memory stop with (Lukas’) death 12 years ago.”
Love Notes for Lukas, which functions as an open-mic style event open to all K-12 students, creates an approachable event that simultaneously promotes Ebell and Bierema’s message.
“Music is such an important thing in the Athens community and it seemed like a natural fit in getting younger participants involved in the charity. Even if you know nothing about Lukas’ Fund, you can still be there and have a good time,” Ebell said.
Each year, Love Notes for Lukas has around 10 to 12 performance groups composed of 20 to 30 participants perform. Clarke Central High School junior Simone Zaccaria-Jeffers, who has performed at Love Notes for Lukas multiple times, says it is an important event.
“(It) is really special because you know you are there helping (Lukas’ Fund). It’s a sad time but everyone is happy that we are there to support the cause,” Zaccaria-Jeffers said. “It’s great getting together with everyone and (perform) music, everyone is so nice.”
Loves Notes for Lukas is put on with the help of CCSD parent Jen Fleece and Director of Bands Dr. Robert Lawrence.
“We have a great board, and Jen Fleece has been really instrumental in getting (Love Notes for Lukas) going and Dr. Lawrence has been there every year. He is fantastic and we really have appreciated his support. They have done the most work in identifying the participants, (while) we work with Hendershots so we can rent out the time and space,” Ebell said.
Along with Love Notes for Lukas, Ebell and Bierema raise money and awareness with a golf tournament, hosted at the University of Georgia Golf Course, and a wine tasting event each year.
“I permanently run the golf tournament, and my wife primarily runs the wine tasting and Jen and Dr. Lawrence are the ones that have really taken leadership for Love Notes for Lukas,” Ebell said.
The golf tournament and the wine tasting have gone on longer than Love Notes for Lukas. All three goals of these events are to raise money for the infants, families of the infants, and the NICU both at Regional and Grady.
“We have been doing the golf tournament for about 11 years we have about 100 golfers. The wine tasting is in the fall and we rotate (the location) between Athens and Atlanta. Those are our two big fundraisers,” Ebell said. “Over these past 11 years we have raised well over a quarter of a million dollars to benefit both ICUs of both institutions.”
Ebell and Bierema recently made a donation to ARMC to provide funding for bedside seating and for the creation of Lukas’ Rooms, which help solve the problem of large lodging expenses for families while their child is in intensive care.
“We recently made a $23,000 gift to Athens Regional to get (26) rocking chairs and seats at the bedsides because there really wasn’t any place for (the family) to sit,” Ebell said.
Ebell and Bierema’s donation also helped fund Lukas’ rooms, where families can stay free of charge.
“We have helped to make what we call Lukas’ Rooms where families can stay, particularly at Grady where a lot of families are coming from all over Georgia since Grady serves 40 counties,” Ebell said.
Love Notes for Lukas has around 10 to 12 groups perform per year and around 20 to 30 participants per year. Ebell hopes that it will continue to serve as an educational experience for years to come.
“The event is always fun itself, seeing the level of talent in the community always blows me away. The talent just simply blows me away,” Ebell said. “There is no admission cost, you can make a donation, but, again, the purpose is less about making money and more about raising awareness.”
