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The Little Al Foundation started because of a very special baby boy named Alan Andrew Dean Miller, also known as Little Al. Alan was born on July 23, 2004, but sadly passed away on Jan. 14, 2005 due to a congenital heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. Little Al’s mom and dad, Ryan and Holly Miller, had to leave their home in Iowa and go to University of Michigan CS Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor so Little Al could get the surgery he needed right after he was born. They had no idea if they would be away for a few weeks or many months, but they went in pursuit of getting their son the best treatment they could.

 

While they were at the hospital, Little Al’s parents met a lot of other families who were going through tough times, too. Often, these families had to be apart because one parent had to go back home to work. It began to weigh on Ryan’s heart to help find a way for families stay together when their kids needed medical care away from home. Motivated by this conviction, the Miller family came together to establish the Little Al Foundation, which now annually serves dozens of Iowa families with children in need of serious medical treatment away from home.

To read about their journey, go to Little Al's journal.