“Texas Hobby AA Benefits Bone Marrow Transplant Recipient”
This article by Richard Green, Editor, first appeared in “Auto Remarketing” issue: Oct 15-31, 2006  VOL. 17, NO. 20

copyright © 2008  HisGraceFoundation.org All rights reserved.
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To help raise funds for toys to go to kids awaiting bone marrow transplants at the Texas Children’s Hospital, Manheim’s Texas Hobby Auto Auction raffled off $10 tickets to participating dealers last Christmas season for three big-screen TVs. Taking part in the frenetic action were Jerry Branham, auction general manager, Ron Hardy, representative for Vanguard Car Rental USA: Val Anderson, executive director of HisGraceFoundation, Lisa Csikos, also of HisGraceFoundation, and Vali Runnels, dealer sales rep for Texas Hobby.

Houston - Golf and the auto industry go together like peanut butter and jelly. They can’t be separated. But when 144 dealers set foot on the Timber Creek Golf Club in Friendswood, Texas on Oct. 25 for the sixth annual Texas Hobby Auto Auction Golf Tournament, they’ll be teeing up for more than just a love for the game.


With some flying in from both coasts just to take part, they will be playing for a cause much greater than themselves. No matter how they shoot or how low or high their scores are at the end of the day, they can go home knowing that they have benefited the families of kids who are in the bone marrow transplant wing of Texas Children’s Hospital.


According to Vali Runnels, dealer sales representative for Manheim’s Texas Hobby Auto Auction, for the first five years of the annual charity golf tournament, proceeds went directly to the Texas Children’s Hospital in general, and it dispersed the funds wherever most needed.


And the auction was fine with that arrangement, Runnels noted. But this past summer, Runnels said auction general manager Jerry Branham asked her to spearhead an effort to

identify a smaller local volunteer organization with which it could get more personally involved.


Runnels said her research pointed her to the Children’s Fund, a nonprofit Houston-based foundation that funds area start-up charities for their first year until they can get on their feet financially.


That association led her to His Grace foundation, which provides personalized, relationship-based support for families with a child having to undergo a bone marrow transplant at the world-famous Texas Children’s Hospital.

Runnels then contacted Val Anderson, executive director of His Grace Foundation, and the relationship between Texas Hobby and His Grace clicked from the outset.


“We’re still affiliated with Texas children’s Hospital, and we like that, but this way we get to narrow down our involvement to one smaller Houston charity that we can become more active with on a deeper level,” Runnels explained. “It’s like a charity within a charity.”

According to His Grace Foundation’s Website the organization was founded by John and Erin Kiltz in response to the needs they witnessed as a family while their youngest daughter, Gracie, was a cancer patient at the hospital. The Web site went on to say that Erin’s best friend, Val Anderson, was at their side and instrumental in helping with formation of HisGraceFoundation.


Volunteers initially deliver a gift basket with dozens of items needed for a long hospital stay, from bottled water and shampoo to a phone card and age-appropriate toys for the patient. The also serve two catered  meals per month to parents or caregivers. They also fill weekly shopping lists for patient families. And given the $11-a-day charge for parking, HisGraceFoundation provides parking for families as long as their children are in the transplant unit.


Photos for this event.