Helping a Family in Need

Edited on August 19th-Prizes have been updated!

During Drew's recent hospitalization we felt incredibly loved and supported by friends and family. One of our friends organized a raffle to benefit our family and help with all the expenses associated with being away from home and living out of the hospital. Many of you actually donated items to the raffle or bought tickets to support us. We were so grateful to have so many people come together to offer us help in a real, tangible way.

So of course, I jumped at the chance to provide that kind of help to another family in need. As the new co-chair of the Hearts of Hope support group I am in charge of putting together a raffle to benefit the Torrente Family. Here is their story.

Arianna Torrente

Arianna is a sweet 3-year-old girl. She just had her third open heart surgery in June at Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento. She has had lots of complications and is now in her NINTH week of hospitalization. Her parents, Bahar & Miguel, are from Stockton and have stayed with her as much as possible. They are living at The Sharing Place, which is family housing located right on the Sutter campus. She also has a six-year-old sister who is now staying with them at the hospital since Miguel had to return to work. This week her parents were told it might be another six weeks. That would be fifteen weeks living away from home, missing work, eating every meal out and still paying bills at home.

The Hearts of Hope Support Group would like to support this family by putting on a raffle. Raffle tickets are $10 each or 3 for $25. All the proceeds from the raffle will go directly to the Torrente family to help with their costs associated with this hospitalization.

Prizes are:

$50 Spa Finder Gift Card
$200 MAC makeup set
Haircut with Lindsay Sells of Joseph Anthony Salon
$100 Gift Card to Outback Steakhouse
3 decorative (empty) 1.5 liter wine bottles that have the Sacramento Kings logo etched on them
3.5 liter bottle of Penfold's Thomas Hyland Shiraz Vintage 2002
Dewar's logo golf bag

If you are interested in purchasing raffle tickets please contact Andrea Himmelberger at a_himmelberger@hotmail.com or 916-606-7180.