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GROVES — When Chloe Collida was born on Dec. 21, 2017, everything appeared fine. But within hours, she would be bound for Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital with a rare heart condition.

“The aorta, the main valve from her heart that produces blood to the rest of her body, was bent and twisted,” her mother Jordyn Collida said. “She basically had a heart attack and was dying.”

As if Chloe’s condition was stressful enough, her parents would need to stay in Houston near their daughter. But the answer came from inside the hospital.

“There’s the main Ronald McDonald House and one inside Memorial Hermann on the same floor as the (neonatal intensive care unit),” Jordyn said. “We were there for about a month and they never asked me for a dollar.”

Chloe’s older brothers, now 8 and 7, were able to visit for Christmas.

“They let our kids come and stay…so we could spend Christmas with all of us and they were able to see her,” Jordyn said. “They took away all of the worries we had and we could focus on her.”

In turn, the family has made it a mission to donate to the Ronald McDonald House inside the hospital each year. But this time, with the help of the community, the daycare owner was able to bring a vehicle loaded with snacks, drinks, stuffed animals and other items to Houston.

According to Ronald McDonald House Charities, the individual centers and family rooms located inside hospitals are funded through individuals, organizations and businesses. The cost to operate a room can range up to $100 per night, but no family is required to pay or turned away.

And even items such as the pre-packaged snacks and drinks available for free inside the family area were a blessing, Jordyn said.

So this year, the owner of Building Blocks Head Start Academy brought her daycare families and the community into the drive for donations.

For every item brought in, parents were entered into a drawing for a chance to win free tuition for a year or a Texas Roadhouse gift basket. People from the community who dropped off items that did not have children at the daycare were able to pick from a list of last names, putting a family’s name in the drawing.

And on Dec. 23, Jordyn and Chloe went to Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital to help payback what they had received.

Building Blocks Head Start Academy

Jordyn had been in the process of purchasing the daycare located at 6900 39th Street for two years, becoming primary owner this month.

“We recently changed it over to start fresh and start new,” she said. “We started with a new name just to start over with me being 100 percent of the owner.”

She fell into the daycare industry by accident.

“Honestly I was a really young mom,” Jordyn said. “I was working at a retail store plus paying daycare and I realized I was paying more for daycare than what I was making. A job opened up at my son’s daycare and they asked if I had thought about applying. And I fell in love with it. Fell in love with every aspect of it.”

She has worked with all types of children, and has partnered with Child Protective Services to provide daycare services to foster children.

“I truly love what I do,” she said. “I try to do everything to help parents, because I’ve been on that side. I’ve been a parent with a child in daycare. I know how expensive daycare is. But also being on this end, I know what it costs to do it.”

Currently the center can accommodate 40 children up to school age. They are working on expanding with a building for older children to stay in after school.