{"id":62291,"date":"2025-11-05T08:35:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/?p=62291"},"modified":"2025-11-06T16:56:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T00:56:57","slug":"small-hands-create-big-impact-claires-giving-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/news\/small-hands-create-big-impact-claires-giving-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Hands Create Big Impact &#8211; Claire&#8217;s Giving Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article\">\n\t<header class=\"header\">\n\t\t<span class=\"type\"><\/span>\t\t<h1>Small Hands Create Big Impact &#8211; Claire&#8217;s Giving Story<\/h1>\t\t<time>November 5, 2025<\/time>\n\t<\/header>\n\t<div id=\"block_f8ccb91a3ccc2a266fa8ff1fdcf79e20\" class=\"shs-block block-news-article entry-content\">\n\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"acf-innerblocks-container\">\n\n<p>At just 12 years old, Claire Burrill of Albany is already positively impacting her community. The oldest of six siblings, Burrill instinctively looks after others and was inspired by her 4\u2011year\u2011old neighbor, Kaia Mannale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As an infant, Mannale was diagnosed with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hopkinsmedicine.org\/health\/conditions-and-diseases\/arthrogryposis#:~:text=Arthrogryposis%2C%20also%20called%20arthrogryposis%20multiplex,or%20partially%20extend%20or%20bend.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">arthrogryposis<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hopkinsmedicine.org\/health\/conditions-and-diseases\/pierre-robin-sequence#:~:text=Pierre%20Robin%20sequence%20is%20also,tongue%20and%20upper%20airway%20obstruction.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pierre Robin syndrome<\/a>, which impact her joints, muscles and lower jaw. She underwent several surgeries in the year after she was born, requiring she and her family to spend a lot of time in the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wanting to bring comfort and joy to others facing similar experiences, Burrill came up with a heartfelt idea: provide gift bags for patients at Samaritan Health Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea sparked when Burrill saw a story about someone creating and donating care bags to the houseless community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI thought, if it could be done for the houseless, why couldn\u2019t it be done for hospital patients?\u201d Burrill said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Claire Begins Her Mission<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Burrill rolled up her sleeves and got to work. She and her sisters baked cookies, brownies and other treats to sell at bake sales, raising funds to create a variety of gift bags. They also crocheted items to sell and sometimes hosted lemonade stands to boost fundraising. When a sale didn\u2019t quite meet their goal, Burrill even donated some of her own money to make sure they could still meet the vision she had for the bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each bag was thoughtfully curated for different age groups of patients, including a special one for new parents. The bags were filled with items to help someone pass the time, to bring comfort or simply to brighten someone\u2019s day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her efforts caught the attention of Samaritan Foundations, which embraced her project and helped her present gift bags to Samaritan Pediatrics in Corvallis. A group of nurses and clinicians gathered to receive the donations, hear Burrill\u2019s story and thank her for her generosity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cClaire\u2019s generous and thoughtful support reminds us that anyone can make a difference,\u201d said Whitney Olsen, senior development specialist with Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation. \u201cHer philanthropy is an inspiration to the next generation of volunteers and donors who want to improve others\u2019 lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To honor her kindness, Samaritan Foundations presented Burrill with a special challenge coin, recognizing the impact she\u2019s already making in her community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Burrill hopes her story will inspire others to take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI just want people to know that you don\u2019t have to be a grown-up to make a difference,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope more people will give back to our hospitals and community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With compassion, creativity and a little help from her younger siblings, Burrill is proving that even the smallest hands can make the biggest difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn how you can make a difference through a Samaritan foundation at<br><a href=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/Giving\/\">samhealth.org\/Giving<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-9-16 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Claire&#039;s Giving Story\" width=\"422\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1MOCFBeCiP0?feature=oembed&#038;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<aside>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"360\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/201-H2H-Claires-Giving-Story-0525_0025-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-cta size-cta wp-post-image\" alt=\"12 year old Albany resident Claire Burrill posed with neighbor Kaia Mannale.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/201-H2H-Claires-Giving-Story-0525_0025-1.jpg 360w, https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/201-H2H-Claires-Giving-Story-0525_0025-1-300x250.jpg 300w, https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/201-H2H-Claires-Giving-Story-0525_0025-1-120x100.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><\/figure><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"360\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/201-H2H-Claires-Giving-Story-0525_0043.jpg\" class=\"attachment-cta size-cta\" alt=\"Claire Burrill poses with her siblings \u2014 Elizabeth, Maria, Joe, Sam and Nicholas \u2014 and friend Kaia Mannale in their neighborhood, where a spark of inspiration turned into something special\" \/><\/figure>\t\t<\/aside>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>12-year-old Albany resident, Claire Burrill, is making a difference in her community by donating gift bags for patients at Samaritan Health Services. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":62292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","_shs_workflow_notes":"","_shs_exclude_from_navigation":false,"_shs_promote_article_on_blogs":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"news-topics":[279],"news-types":[270],"services":[],"specialty":[],"class_list":["post-62291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","news-topics-giving","news-types-feature-article"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62291"},{"taxonomy":"news-topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topics?post=62291"},{"taxonomy":"news-types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-types?post=62291"},{"taxonomy":"services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/services?post=62291"},{"taxonomy":"specialty","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/specialty?post=62291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}