Meet Stella & The Spoelkers

We are so happy to be joining camp this year with our family in honor of Stella, our second of four kids. Stella had trisomy 18 and lived for a beautiful 39 days. We moved for fair care to Cincinnati Children’s, where she received compassionate medical care (something that many of our children don’t receive and something we didn’t receive in Louisville, KY, at our local hospital). Stella taught us to live each day to the fullest and to celebrate and find joy in every moment. She taught us a deeper understanding of pain and, therefore, a new level of empathy we wouldn’t have known existed without knowing her. Stella taught us to fight for the vulnerable and love like it’s your last day here. She was incredible, beautiful, spunky, so snuggly, and easy-going. We miss her every second of every day, and we are also so grateful that she is such an active part of our lives each day.

Doug and I co-founded The Stella Effect in 2020 in order to help other families just like ours with everything that she taught us.

We would love your help getting all of our campers to camp this summer. Any donation is so helpful in making that dream come true for our 32 campers from across the U.S. and even Canada. Thank you for helping us support Trisomy 13 and 18 families.

For larger donations, please donate fee-free at our PayPal Giving Fund here.