A Conversation With Our Social Worker, Sarah Ewalt

Sarah Ewalt is a licensed social worker, who dedicates part of her time to identifying and working with Live Like Luke grant recipients. We sat down to get a little insight into what she does and what it’s like to work with Live Like Luke.

Q: What brought you to Live Like Luke?

Sarah: I am good friends with Beth and my husband is actually best friends with Derek Childs, so we’ve known that family for a few years now. I was asked to be on the board of Live Like Luke by the pastor of Arapaho United Methodist Church. I recognized that in order to get the applications to the hospitals we needed a social worker to communicate with the social workers at the children’s hospitals. I’m a licensed social worker, so I offered to do that.

Q: What is the grant process like?

Sarah:  We have social workers at the children’s hospitals here in Dallas and at Cook Children’s, and they have my information. The social workers identify families in their units, all across the children’s hospital, oncology, transplant unit, heart – anything pediatrics. They will communicate with each other and decide on a family to nominate for the grant. They send it to me, I present the child’s application to our board, and we vote on awarding the family a grant. Then I have the honor of telling the family that they’ve won the grant, and that they will get the financial support that they need.

Q: Who is a Live Like Luke grant recipient?

A: Our grant recipients are children who most likely have been hospitalized for a long time, potentially terminally. We have seen applicants with all different diagnoses and issues, and offered awards to all different kiddos and families, so there’s not just one typical kid. We are not just in oncology, but we have certainly helped kids with cancer. Anyone who is having financial consequences from their hospital stay. If the family is struggling financially because their child has been in the hospital for so long, and they have needed to be there with them, then that’s who we’re looking to support.

Q: How can people apply for grants?

Sarah: To apply for a Live Like Luke of Texas grant, you would contact your social worker at the hospital. The social worker knows about all of the different benefits that a family would be appropriate for. So they are the ones to contact, and then they would reach out to us with the application.

Q: How does Live Like Luke award grants?

Sarah: When a family is awarded a grant, we disburse the funds by paying their vendors directly. We write a check to their landlord; or I get online and pay a utility bill. It goes directly to whoever needs to be paid.

It is so amazing to connect with families who have this intense story and situation in the hospital with their kiddo, and being able to offer them some financial support so they can worry more about sitting next to their child in the hospital then paying their rent that month.

Sarah Ewalt

Q: Where do the funds for the grants come from?

Sarah: The funds for Live Like Luke grants come 100% from donations from community members. And 100% of the funds raised go toward helping our families. That is the really cool thing about partnering with Arapaho United Methodist Church. They supply the part time social worker, they give us a house to operate in, and that way the donations go 100% to helping families, because we have no overhead costs.

Q: No overhead at all? Who does the rest of the work?

Sarah: We have an amazing volunteer board who helps us with our applications committee, processing applications, doing our social media and our website, doing our fundraising, like our big Birthday Splash event last summer. So this thing is completely run by volunteers.

Q: What’s your favorite part of the job?

Sarah: My favorite part of this job is connecting with families after they have gotten a grant award. It is so amazing to connect with families who have this intense story and situation in the hospital with their kiddo, and being able to offer them some financial support so they can worry more about sitting next to their child in the hospital then paying their rent that month – it is so powerful, and I – It is so rewarding. It’s the best part of my job.