GoFundMe for new van to help Middlebury family travel to Riley Children’s Hospital

MIDDLEBURY, Ind. (WNDU) -Now for a holiday highlight in Middlebury.

People are embracing the spirit of giving by raising money for a family who travels a long way to get medical treatment for their daughter.

16 News Now spoke to the family to find out what this effort means to them.

Anna Yutzy and her family travel to Riley Children’s Hospital so Anna can get treatment.

For the last six years, they’ve been traveling there in a van that hasn’t always gotten there without breaking down or needing some costly repairs.

This holiday season, the community is pitching in to get the Yutzys something a little more reliable.

“I know that people are loving me and supporting me through everything,” said 12-year old Anna Yutzy.

Anna is used to routine trips to Riley, but when one of her lungs collapsed in October, it was clear these trips wouldn’t end soon.

Knowing about their transportation challenges, a family friend started a GoFundMe to get the Yutzys a new van.

So far it’s raised nearly $10,000.

“It’s just really cool to see all the support I’m getting from everybody else,” Anna said.

Reliability isn’t the only problem with their current ride. The van isn’t very accessible for people with disabilities, creating challenges every time they need to get in.

“In the last 18 months, it’s been about $4,000 that we’ve put into the van. Between different things like having to have it towed or having to have someone come rescue us in the middle of the night because we got stuck,” said Anna’s mother Alyssa Yutzy.

Not only will a new van make the trips to the hospital easier, but it will also allow Anna to get back to the things she loves, dance and band.

“We’d be able to transport her to those competitions so she could see her team perform. Same thing with band. She wants to do marching band, so to be able to transport her and her equipment with the band would be a big deal,” Alyssa said.

Getting closer to their goal with every donation

Follow this link if you want to donate this holiday season.

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