By Heather Barrow
Serving as both the Executive Director and Board Chair since founding High Risk Hope (HRH) in 2011, it has been my dream to find the perfect person to take over as Executive Director. HRH has grown tremendously during the past six and a half years, from serving only one hospital and a few hundred patients to serving six hospitals (with several new ones in the works) and 2,500 patients every year. We have raised over $1.25 million and helped 6,500 families in crisis thanks to the support of our loyal donors.
One of the families HRH supported in 2014 is the Nicholas Family. Bailey Nicholas was pregnant with twins when she was admitted to St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospital and placed on 
hospital bedrest for preeclampsia, where she received a HRH Bed Rest Basket. After four weeks in the hospital, a spike in blood pressure caused her to have Henry and Nora six weeks early. The babies spent several weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit, where they each received a HRH NICU Napsack. Once their entire family was healthy and home, Bailey began volunteering at HRH, delivering bags to patients and helping with various fundraising initiatives.
I was so impressed with Bailey’s fundraising, nonprofit leadership skills and passion for HRH, that I asked her to join our team in 2015 to oversee fundraising and special events. She was a stay at home mom with her twins at the time, and not in the market for a job. Thankfully, Bailey accepted because it was her dream to work for the organization that helped her family during their crisis.
Bailey has exceeded my expectations ever since. She is hard 
working, creative, intelligent,
driven, honest, caring and truly has our HRH families’ best interests at heart. She is willing to try anything (Belly Flop For Babies) to elevate HRH’s presence in the community, She sets high but attainable goals for herself, the HRH team, and ensures we exceed them. Bailey has never met a stranger and sees every interaction with another person as a chance to tell them about the wonderful things we are doing at HRH. She has developed strong relationships with HRH hospital partners, with several of them inviting her to serve on hospital committees.
All of these traits combined convinced me that I had finally found the person I could trust with my third baby, HRH. Earlier this year I spoke with Bailey about what I hoped would be her future as the Executive Director of HRH. She didn’t hesitate in accepting the challenge and has worked hard every day during our transition to prove that she is exactly the leader I hoped she would be in this role.
In 2011, never in my wildest dreams did I foresee HRH growing to the organization it is today. Fast-forward to 2017 and I can dream much bigger because I now know what the High Risk Hope family is capable of. Bailey’s leadership of our A-team will enable HRH to reach thousands more families in the future. As Chairman of the HRH Board, I can’t wait to see what they will accomplish now that Bailey will wear my purple shoes. 
I was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia while pregnant with my twins. During the last two weeks of my pregnancy, I nervously watched my blood pressure increase twofold, despite being on medication for preterm labor that coincidentally was also blood pressure medication. I gained 13 pounds of water weight in as many days. At my regularly scheduled perinatal appointment, a growth ultrasound showed that my daughter had not grown in two weeks, a result of high blood pressure. The doctor took my blood pressure, which measured 160/98 (my normal blood pressure is 100/60). He looked at me and said, “Whoa! What do you think would happen if we took you off the massive amounts of blood pressure medication you are currently taking?” My eyes welled up as I looked at him with relief that a doctor agreed with what I knew had been happening for two weeks. I had preeclampsia and the babies needed to come immediately.
couldn’t decide between High Risk Hope and The Humane Society of Tampa Bay. Both are worthy causes but it’s ‘really hard’ to pick between babies and animals. I feel her pain. There is a good chance she will pick the puppies, which is OK with me (at least publicly).
The Giving Tree correlates to a fantastic prize. Toys, $10- $50 Columbia gift cards, Kendra Scott Jewelry, a Pottery Barn Kids rocking horse and gift certificates from various Hyde Park Village stores. Claire and Hill have seen me loading these prizes for weeks. If someone donates $25 to HRH on Give Day Tampa Bay, they can pick a leaf off of the HRH Giving Tree by the fountain in Hyde Park. The idea, just like in the book The Giving Tree, is to give away all of our leaves throughout the day, and end up with only a stump. Every grown-up donor will receive a shopping pass full of discounts to Hyde Park Village stores and restaurants. We are going to roll out the purple carpet for every one of our HRH donors on Give Day, no matter how much they give.
your tomorrows will look a lot like yesterday. Make the choice to do something, knowing that the first step will be the hardest but also the most rewarding. The most difficult thing I have ever done in regards to HRH is having that first conversation with my husband in 2011 telling him the idea. Before I made the jump I wondered, what if he thinks I can’t do it? What if he won’t support me? He not only supported me, he was all in. The person you confide in with your future plans will have the same reaction. You just need to take the first step and tell them.
HRH’s motto is the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf quote, ‘If your dreams do not scare you they are not big enough.’ If I wake up in the middle of the night at least once a week because of something big we have in the works for HRH, I know we are on the right path. That feeling in the pit of your stomach that you get before something big (a public speech, a promotion, a wedding or a major life change) is the same feeling for every person. It is how you label it that will separate you from being a success or failure. I label that feeling as excitement about an opportunity rather than nervousness and anxiety about a potential failure.
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