Every year, the Fiesta Bowl Organization provides financial support to nonprofits across the state in an effort to enhance and elevate the lives of Arizona's youth. In its latest grant cycle, Fiesta Bowl Charities granted $25,000 to the Sponsor-A-Stay fund at Ryan House, a nonprofit pediatric-focused facility that provides respite, palliative and end-of-life care for patients with life-limiting and life-threatening diagnoses.
 
The Sponsor-A-Stay donation fund pays for a patient's respite care, which is one of the organization's most expensive costs every year. The gift from Fiesta Bowl Charities equated to 25 days of respite care – almost an entire stay for one patient across the whole year. Each child is allotted 28 days of care per year at zero cost.
 
"That's really what respite is about, it's about giving that family a break while also giving kids a place to come where they can just be kids," said Tracy Leonard-Warner, Executive Director at Ryan House. "That's why donations, like from the Fiesta Bowl, are so important. They help us do what we do every day."
 
Ryan House is open 365 days a year, 24/7, completely free of charge. The eight-bed facility hosts up to six children for respite care at one time and reserves two bedrooms for hospice patients. Respite stays average three to seven days and there is no stay limit for hospice care.
 
It is only one of three facilities like its kind in the United States and is modeled after Helen-House in the United Kingdom, which has more than 50 pediatric respite, palliative and hospice care houses.
 
Patients at Ryan House suffer from a wide range of neuromuscular, neurodevelopmental and nervous system disorders along with congenital malformations, seizures and chromosomal abnormalities. These illnesses are often layered on top of one another, creating patients with multiple comorbidities. A majority are wheelchair bound and all of the patients require around-the-clock care.
 
Along with the incredible nursing staff, Ryan House is supported by an amazing group of volunteers whose job it is to "play with kids," according to Leonard-Warner.
 
A Valley native, Leonard-Warner graduated from Thunderbird High School before receiving her bachelor's in music therapy and master's in healthcare Innovation from Arizona State University. She started her healthcare career at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center where she created the Banner system's first music therapy program in 1996.
 
While working for Banner, Leonard-Warner was the chair of Arizona's Certification Board for Music Therapists and worked on the MD Anderson Cancer Center Project. She transitioned to the administrative side of healthcare, taking a position at Hospice of the Valley – one of Ryan House's founding partners – where she managed a hospice team for adults for five years. Then in 2017, Leonard-Warner joined Ryan House as a fundraising officer for six months before coming into the executive director role which she's held since January 2018.
 
Her office is located where she walks right out the door and often runs into wheelchair races in the halls, oversees Chopped cooking competitions and is asked to judge karaoke contests.
 
"As a clinician at heart, even though I moved into administration, I found it really hard when I worked in an office and was separated from patients and families," said Leonard-Warner. "Here I'm always in the middle of it, in the middle of the mission. I get to know the families and that's what fills me up and makes it so that I'm able to do what I do every day, raising the money and the awareness about the house because I get to see the impact it has every day."
 
A majority of families at Ryan House are Arizona-based, but there are some who relocate from other states like Washington and New Jersey because of the care provided by the organization. According to Leonard-Warner, it is a state-funding issue that there is not really any reimbursement for respite care in the U.S.
 
"The support that we get from the Fiesta Bowl specifically is amazing and it's allowed us to do some really cool things in the house," said Leonard-Warner.
 
Ryan House is a seven-time Fiesta Bowl Charities grant recipient with gifts going toward the Sponsor-A-Stay program, new adaptive playground equipment and surface renovation and an upgraded pool lift that allows patients to access the indoor pool more comfortably and efficiently.
 
The organization could not run by itself and relies on the community to understand and support its mission and care.
 
"Everybody can relate to what these families are facing every day and I think people are thankful for what they have and are willing to share and make life better for these families," said Leonard-Warner. "To me, that's what the Fiesta Bowl is about. It's about reaching out to people in the community and helping make things a little bit better."