Balloons take flight at Rite Aid!

Rite Aid customers can support Children’s Miracle Network at Penn State Children’s Hospital now through May 11 by purchasing paper Miracle Balloons. In exchange, customers will receive $7 in coupon offers for items sold at Rite Aid.

Donations will help kids like Jack, who gets all of his prescriptions filled at his family’s local Rite Aid in Columbia. In fact, Jack’s family LOVES Rite Aid – his mom Heather’s cousin is a Pharmacist and Pharmacy Manager at the store! 

Miracle Child Jack was born at only 28 weeks and weighed just over 2 lbs. He has Chronic Lung Disease (CLD), among other ongoing medical conditions.

“His head fit into my hand like a baseball. He was would curl up in there and sleep for hours,” said Jack’s dad, Jeff.

At 28 weeks pregnant, Heather felt “off” so she went to the hospital and was discovered to have extraordinarily high blood pressure, or preeclampsia – so high that she thought the blood pressure machine was broken.

“I remember them talking about needing to deliver because they didn’t know if they could save both of us,” Heather said.  After he was born, Jack had a tube in his throat and had trouble breathing.  He was diagnosed with respiratory distress syndrome among other conditions due to his premature birth.

Despite all of this, Jack is a happy, fun-loving elementary school student with tons of energy.  Jack often plays “dinosaur” and roars all over the house. Recently, his little sister, Harper, needed help getting a granola bar from the pantry, so she shouted, “Jack, I need you to be human right now!”

Whether he’s living life as a human or dinosaur, Jack is truly living the #GiftofGrowingUp. Watch his video: