Highrollers with Heart
The Highrollers with Heart is a charity started by American Idol (season 5) contestant Ace Young's fans, who call themselves, "Ace's Highrollers", to raise money to build a new hospital for families to stay in while their children are staying there for their hospital needs. As of July 2007, the HRwH are in Track 2 of raising money for the hospital. As of August 18 2008, they have reached their goal of raising money in Track 2.
How it began
On Sunday of Labor Day weekend of 1996, Young's mother called him up, telling him one of his older brothers, Ryan, was in a near-fatal car accident. Ryan's condition was his back broken in seven places, he dislocated the lower two vertebrae, and suffered severe cuts to his spine and hip, all which that required seven hours of surgery. They said Ryan could never be able to walk again.
Ryan had to stay in bed for a year and when Ace had lunch hour off at high school, he would come over to keep Ryan company. After a long year of healing, Ryan beat the odds and was able to walk and dunk a basketball again.
Within the next two years, Ace, Ryan and another brother, Marc, went to children hospitals to visit the sick children. Every Christmas, the Youngs still continue to visit the children, and will continue to do so. As Ace puts it, "If you want to know how Superman feels, just get a hug from one of these little kids."
Young Ones
The Young Ones section is a section for kids (or their parents) can submit their stories of the child meeting Ace, via e-mail, which requires a story and pictures of proof. There are two sections of stories on the page, the top being for children with special needs and the other section being for children who do not (see below).
Special-needs children
- Mackenzie: Mack was diagnosed with leukemia at 15 months. After a hard year of battling in the hospital, she went into remission, but later relapsed. Mack met Ace by a cancer foundation that granted small wishes to kids with cancer. She is currently in remission and her mother, Amy, wrote a story on Mack's successes in the Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul book.
- Zoe: Zoe was a bright, happy 14-month-old girl when spinal muscular atrophy took an unexpected toll on her life. She met Ace at a special meeting at the Denver American Idols LIVE! Tour 2006 show.
- Nicholas: Concerned about Nick's eye turning "lazy", it turned out to be rhabdomyosarcoma. 50% of the tumor was removed but the rest of it was unable to be removed because of it being wrapped around the eye muscle. Nick got to meet Ace in a special backstage meeting. Nick is currently cancer-free and is getting his eye fixed.
- Dante: Just over a week after meeting Ace, Dante suffered from a broken wrist and underwent an appendectomy and surgery to correct a birth defect on his kidney. Since then, he has bounced back and is ready to help the HRwH whenever possible.
- Hayley: Hayley came into the world by not moving in her mother's womb and was put on oxygen and intensive care. After many rough surgeries and therapy, Hayley was diagnosed with autism. While watching Ace, she said her first word, "ACE". Hayley met Ace wearing a shirt that said, "My first word was ACE."
Non-special-needs children
- Nicky: Nicky and his mother got two tickets and backstage passes for the Philadelphia Idols show. After meeting and letting Paris Bennett, Chris Daughtry, Bucky Covington and Elliott Yamin sign his body, Nicky met Ace and talked about football and being the youngest brother in the family.
- Patrick: Three-year-old Patrick met Ace in Atlanta at the Idols concert. Patrick sang a duet with Ace of Ace's song "Don't Go".
- Briana: Getting out of school early for a surprise, Briana got to meet Ace in Orlando at the House of Blues and gave him a shirt as a gift.
- Caitlin: Caitlin is an active child with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis who met Ace when he surprised the family with backstage passes for the Dallas show.
- Lindsey: After falling in love with Ace from Idol, Lindsey went to her first concert in Portland, Maine. She met Kellie Pickler, Bucky, Elliott (whom she told that her brother is a diabetic as well as Elliott is), Chris and Ace. She hugged Ace four times and he nicknamed her "The Huggy Princess".
- Connor: While his mother works for the Highrollers, Connor and she went to a convention in Minneapolis to help support Ace's charity, and met Ace on stage and at Meet and Greet.
Family Amenities Area
The Family Amenities Area (FAA) is a hospital the HRwH are building for the family of the sick child to stay in, known as, "Home away from home." The FAA will include six large family rooms with private bathrooms, two dressing rooms, lockers for personal items, a laundry room with three washers and dryers and a private massage room. Such items will be included like a big-screen TV, and a computer with Internet access. The Family Amenities Area opened in the fall of 2007.