A little kindness can go a long way. A smile from across the room. A knowing look a mom shares with another mom, both of whom have a child in the hospital. Or a gift, not meant to pay that kindness back, but rather to pay it forward.

For the Scerini family, those “little kindnesses” started with their own littlest, Holden, when he was just a newborn.

Holden was diagnosed with not one, but several critical congenital heart defects. The family had to become familiar with scary terms like atrioventricular septal defect, transposition of the great arteries, ventricular septal defect and pulmonary stenosis. Essentially, his little heart did not grow the way it was supposed to. Without immediate surgery, his condition was life-threatening. And if open-heart surgery on a newborn baby and a six-week stay in the hospital weren’t scary enough, the Scerini family lived three and a half hours away from the hospital. How could any family be prepared for this?

And so began the series of little kindnesses which comforted dad Justin, mom Cheyanna, big brother Jackson, and of course little Holden. It started with a social worker at the hospital who heard their fears and worries and told them about the Ronald McDonald House, meaning the Scerinis had a place to stay, at no cost, for the duration of Holden’s treatment. Over the course of 45 days, a stay at the Ronald McDonald House could save a family $11,250 in lodging, food, and transportation costs.

The next kindnesses came from volunteers at the Ronald McDonald House. Groups that came in to do the simplest and most nurturing of things – cook a meal. (We call them our Chefs for a Day.) For Justin, it meant so much more than some food on a plate. He still gets emotional about it, recently remembering how “it touches your heart to see everybody that gets in there and that comes together to help everybody that’s having a bad time.”

Thankfully, baby Holden’s surgery was successful, as was his second surgery two months later. Thinking about the other guests he met at the House, Justin’s empathy for and connection with those families came flooding back.

“There were a couple of kids there, like, waiting for hearts – and it’s like – you never see that type of stuff in the real world. And then you get around it all the time and you realize how many kids it affects, and it’s just – heartbreaking.”

And so Justin and his family wanted to do everything they could to pay it forward. They attended dinners at the House for past guest families to create a community of support. Justin is also part of a growing online community that is far more supportive than one might expect: dogecoin.

Yes, dogecoin (pronounced DOUGH-ZH-coin), the cryptocurrency with the funny looking Shiba Inu dog as its mascot, may have started off as an internet joke, but it has grown into, among other things, a community of people like Justin dedicated to showing the world that this new currency can be used for good.

After Justin saw a light-hearted Twitter exchange between McDonald’s and dogecoin creator Billy Markus, he knew how he could help other families like his. He found that he could make a donation of cryptocurrency right on the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern Arizona website. Justin was happy that the gifts would be used locally, and that the process was quick and easy.

He shared his donation with the dogecoin community on social media, and wouldn’t you know it, the community responded with several more donations of their own from all over the country. It was enough to support two families for a night at the Ronald McDonald House. Another little kindness that had far-reaching effects.

And while Holden has continued to flourish since then, he will still require multiple surgeries to completely repair his heart, and the Scerini family expects to stay at the Ronald McDonald House again. But thanks to people like you and small acts of kindness, they know they’ll always have a place to call a “home-away-from-home” whenever Holden needs surgery.

When you donate to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern Arizona, your provide a “home-away-from-home” for families like the Scerinis.