Life can throw a lot at you. Sometimes the world is caving in.

A frightened parent spends a sleepless night with her son close by in his hospital bed. Ellen Arky, an employee at the hospital, understands for the first time how life-altering a simple cup of coffee can be the moment one is handed over by a smiling volunteer.

“Parent Coffee” doesn’t mean much to the average joe (pardon the pun). At Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, employees volunteer to take a cart of hot coffee around twice a day. It has been saving stressed, exhausted and worried parents for decades.

It’s amazing how a simple cup of coffee can fix just about anything.

Arky knows this because she has been delivering those smiles and the steaming hot cups for more than 20 years. These days, she can't even hand over a cup without returning, for a split second, to that moment in time when she was on the receiving end. 

She has learned that a simple cup of coffee is a vital part of our mission.