It has been said that we get by with a little help from our friends-in this case, our friends from Honda! Associates from the Lincoln, Ala. Honda plant recently joined parents and children at the Fourth Annual Rhizo Kids Conference held at Chesnut Bay Resort to help out where they could.

Each year, Honda performs community service projects wherever they find a need. For every five hours each associate works, Honda donates $100 to that particular charity or project.

“We help with the meals, serving, cleaning up afterward,” said Kendall Walker with Honda. “We are helping watch the healthy kids that are here while their families and some of their children with RCDP are meeting with the doctors.”

“We are going to be cooking them some lunch here pretty soon,” said Walker. “We’ve got a grill and they will be showing up pretty soon for hot dogs. In general, we are just doing anything they need doing right now to help the families out because they need so much help.”

“We have people putting together fishing poles, to take the kids fishing,” said Walker. “We have a bouncy house for kids to jump in, we have kids swimming,”

Walker said he mentioned the Rhizo Kids Conference to Honda after he was personally touched.

“I have a friend I went to high school with,” said Walker. “He and his wife’s son, Jackson, was born with RCDP. Just from being friends with them, I knew these kids and their families needed our help.”

“It takes so much attention for the sick kids that the parents have a hard time,” said Walker. “This is the only conference in the world for this disease. Families from all over the United States come here.

“We are just trying to help them out, show them a good time, so they can concentrate on why they are here, their children, and not have to worry about cleaning up after the meal, not having to worry about their healthy kids, what they are doing or if they are safe.”

“So far, it has gone wonderfully,” said Walker. “We are just here to help the families. This is a worthy cause. There are basically only 150 cases known world wide of this disease. It is rare and most of these (Honda) folks didn’t even know anything about this until I started talking to them about it. They had never heard of it before because it was so rare. When you see these kids, their families and what all they go through, it is just a heartwarming thing. It touches you.”

“We are just trying to give them something to do,” said Honda Volunteer Mike Monell. “A lot of them are far away from home and we are just trying to give them a good time while their parents are here. We are just volunteering to clean up, help out, and do whatever we can to make a good day for them. We are blessed and glad to have the opportunity to do it.”

“We do a volunteer project every year for Honda and Honda does several different areas,” said Monell. “We heard about this from one of the other workers. His friend and wife have a child with RCDP. That is how it came to our attention. They have this conference very year and we just thought we would volunteer and help out.”

“I am enjoying it,” said Honda Volunteer Marcus Hughley. “It is a blessing to be able to come up and help out. We always try to get together and do something every year.”

“It is a blessing to be able to volunteer,” said Hughley.