DOWNERS GROVE – Going to a Major League Baseball game can be a rite of passage for some kids. For nine-year-old twins Grace and Charlie Wallin of Naperville, it was the opportunity of a lifetime: They were the Honorary Bat Kids for the Chicago Cubs at the Sunday, July 17, game against the Texas Rangers.
Throughout the baseball season, Advocate Health Care, a legacy partner of the Chicago Cubs, provides young patients the opportunity to be Honorary Bat Kids for a game. This is just one way that Advocate gives back to its patients, families and communities.
Born on December 4, 2006, at just 24 weeks, Grace and Charlie weighed only 20 ounces and were admitted to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital’s Level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The duo remained in the NICU for 120 days until they were ready to go home with parents Joel and Ann.
Today, Grace and Charlie are healthy kids who continue to show their appreciation to the hospital every year by collecting books around their birthday in December and delivering them to the NICU so they can be read to premature and ill infants.
The twins attended the game with their parents, Joel and Ann Wallin, and their younger sister, Ava Wallin. The siblings sat in the dugout before the game, meeting players and getting autographs.
“Grace and Charlie would not be here today if it was not for the incredible and tireless efforts of the nurses, doctors and staff at Good Sam,” said Ann, the twins’ mother.