Dick Wilson, broker/owner of RE/MAX Associates West in Bartlett, Ill., has always encouraged the fundraising efforts that RE/MAX Northern Illinois undertakes for the benefit of Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

This year, though, Wilson has a far more personal reason to do so. His infant granddaughter, Breanna Ruud, born in June, has already had six surgeries at Children’s Memorial to treat a heart defect and faces two more before she turns two. Her weekly medical care has been estimated to cost in the mid-five-figure range.

So this year, Wilson and several others in his office, all with family ties to Children’s Memorial, are making a special effort to raise additional funds to help the hospital care for Breanna and the hundreds of other children it serves each year.

First, the office will be appealing to neighbors and the general public to donate during December to the Children’s Miracle Network (CMN), a non-profit that raises funds for more than 170 children’s hospitals across the country. The funds donated to CMN in the Chicago area go to Children’s Memorial.

“We encourage everyone in the community to stop in during the holiday season and make a donation, small or large, to help Children’s Memorial with its wonderful work,” says Wilson.

Plans also are being developed for a special office Christmas party at the home of agent Mary Olson, whose grandson received extensive treatment at Children’s Memorial. All those attending the party will be asked to pay an admission fee that will be donated to CMN.

Wilson wants to make RE/MAX Associates West, located at 1011 W. Stearns Road, a CMN Miracle Office, meaning that all of its agents have contributed to CMN during the calendar year.

There would be no better way for Wilson to commemorate the holiday season than reaching that goal.

“My granddaughter is a fighter, and the wonderful staff at Children’s Memorial is helping that fight,” Wilson says. “My daughter Ashley can’t speak highly enough of the nurses and doctors there. They are doing a great job. The care my granddaughter has been getting is excellent.”

RE/MAX Associates West isn’t the only RE/MAX Northern Illinois brokerage that is supporting the Children’s Miracle Network and Children’s Memorial Hospital. RE/MAX Northern Illinois has provided more than $2.1 million in financial support to the CMN since 1992.