B Y - D I A N E - P A J A K - ( B S F C S - '9 3 )

Donna Carson wanted to help infants born to drug-addicted mothers. So she created a special-care facility called My House that earned her a "Use Your Life Award" from Oprah Winfrey—and $100,000

t was one of those moments that a person like Donna Carson never even dreams about because, for her, the work is its own reward. And so taxing, both physically and emotionally, that she doesn't have time to sit around congratulating herself on all the good she's doing and wondering when Oprah Winfrey is going to declare her an angel and hand her a $100,000 check on national TV.

But that's exactly what happened to Carson (AB '70, MEd '73, MSW '76), who found herself standing in the wings at Harpo Studios in Chicago last fall as Oprah's studio audience and millions more around the country watched video footage shot at My House in Atlanta, where Carson and her staff give special care to "Boarder Babies" who are born to drug-addicted mothers.

"I remember this sound guy saying something so sweet like, 'Get ready to let the world meet you,' and the most overwhelming feeling of pride took over and I couldn't quit smiling," Carson recalls. "Then I walked onto the stage and met Oprah. It was the first time in my life I was speechless!"

It took a year and a half to convert the old Victorian home into a special-care facility, and Carson painted every room.

Fortunately, Carson's reputation preceded her. Without telling her until they were ready to put it in the mail, her staff put together a scrapbook recounting the extreme TLC that Boarder Babies receive at My House 365 days a year. It told the story of expert medical attention, foster care referrals and adoptions when infants can't be released to their own parents, and basic love and affection that all newborns need to get a good start in life. Carson's staff created the scrapbook with Oprah's "Use Your Life Award" in mind.

And now, months later, with 15 members of her staff cheering in the studio audience, here was Donna Carson being dubbed an "angel" by America's most watched and most admired talk show host—who did, in fact, hand her a check for $100,000 to keep up the good work at My House.

One of the people at the Oprah show that day was Fulton County Juvenile Court Judge Nina Hickson, who was holding her adopted daughter Wesley, an alumna of My House.

"The turning point for me occurred while sitting on the bench hearing a case involving a seven-year-old boy with mental health problems whose mother relinquished her rights in caring for him," says Judge Hickson. "There were no relatives in the area who could care for him. After seeing more than 100 abused and neglected children in the Atlanta area before me in court, my heart broke that day."

In preparation for becoming an adoptive parent, Judge Hickson took a parenting course. While enrolled, she got a call from a friend who told her about My House. She met Carson, toured the facility, and mingled with the babies—one in particular, who latched onto her leg, tugged at the hem of her dress, and pulled out the thread.

"You might say I ended up being selected by my daughter," says Judge Hickson, who says she's a better judge because of her relationship with her daughter. "She was born drug-exposed with severe withdrawal during her first three months. One day, she stopped breathing. Donna resuscitated her. My House is the key to survival."

Oprah's "Use Your Life Award" staff was so taken with the work Carson is doing at My House that they call her every week for updates.

onna Carson has been a member of the faculty at the Emory University School of Medicine for 23 years. She's an instructor in pediatrics, where she teaches courses on family and social systems, and death and grieving. She also provides direct services to families. At Emory's teaching institution, Grady Hospital, she supervises social workers in the neonatal intensive care nursery, which takes in sick babies from more than 40 counties in North Georgia.

Carson began to notice that after a stay in ICU, some babies who were strong enough to be discharged and sent home stayed at Grady. Marooned, in effect, by mothers with drug addictions and sexually transmitted diseases, these infants often spent weeks and sometimes months at Grady before being placed in a foster care or adoptive home. Something needed to be done.

Carson totaled the cost of housing a baby in intensive care, and came up with an average per-day figure of $1,500, not including physicians' fees. One baby's stay amounted to $750,000.

"But there was no alternative," says Carson. "Some of these babies were born prematurely. Some weighed no more than two pounds at birth. These are medically fragile babies battling medical and developmental needs."

A special-care facility was clearly needed. Question was, how to fund it.

"Anyone who has worked with me will tell you I have tons of energy," says Carson. "If you leave me alone, things will get done. I had never written a grant proposal in my life, but it was the time to get some money to help these babies."

A $10,000 grant from the March of Dimes got the ball rolling, and when the federal Abandoned Infant Program gave Carson $600,000 for services directed at pregnant substance abusers, Project Prevent was born. Carson is the director of Project Prevent, which encourages pregnant women with drug problems to enter drug treatment prior to delivering their babies.

"We've worked with more than 4,500 women in the past decade," she says, "and $100 million has been saved over those 10 years."

Carson's next challenge arose when she realized many women were not seeking drug treatment because of a lack of child care. She applied for more federal funding, and started Family Links, allowing mothers up to 30 days of respite care for their children and allowing them to get into drug treatment. The program also supports families that are in crisis and need respite services to prevent abuse and neglect.

Carson also organized The Grady Rockers, a ground-breaking program where volunteers provide additional human touch to the babies housed in ICU at Grady by holding, rocking, and talking to the newborns, some of whom are recovering from serious medical procedures.

"The program is very popular. We have a long waiting list," says Carson. "I modeled it after the Foster Grandparents Program. You can't do everything yourself. You need money and human touch."

Grady Rockers was the first volunteer program in the U.S. in an intensive care nursery, and it has served as a model for similar programs that have developed across the country over the past 15 years.

The doors to My House opened in June 1999. Converting the Victorian-style home located near Grady into a welcome center and special-care facility took a year and a half to complete, and Carson painted every room in the house herself. She was also adept at recruiting volunteers.

"So many people from the community volunteered their time and energy," she says. "A carpenter knew a woman who painted wall murals, and she in turn knew a plumber, who knew an electrician, who knew someone who wanted to decorate the Angel Room with furnishings from her own home. It's the only facility like it in Georgia and there's only one other that's somewhat similar in the United States."

But there will be others, judging from the phone calls generated by Carson's appearance on Oprah.

"Since the Oprah award," she says, "I've probably received five calls a day from people throughout the country asking for details about our facility."

At last count, Carson had received more than 3,000 e-mail queries.

hen you enter My House, you're immediately aware of the caring, nurturing environment. Classical music plays in the background and every rocking chair has a volunteer and a baby in it. Almost to a person, the volunteers are smiling—and somewhere inside their little heads and hearts, one surmises, so are these at-first unlucky and now oh-so-lucky babies.

My House has accommodated 29 babies since opening its doors. It currently houses 11, who are cared for around the clock by nine full-time and nine part-time employees, with assistance from some 200 volunteers.

"We're licensed to care for 11 medically fragile children between the ages of zero and four—and I wish it were 111 instead of 11," says Carson, ticking off the positive aspects of My House: "It's cost effective, it attracts tremendous community support, it's a good alternative to living in a hospital, and it serves as a model for other communities to adopt. But most of all, these babies have a home, where love and attention are provided 24 hours a day."

Carson, who has an undergraduate degree in psychology, credits Merle Foeckler with steering her into social work.

"Merle pulled me aside one evening during my course work at UGA and told me I needed to get into social work," says Carson, who was working on her master's in rehabilitation counseling at the time. "She could sense my competence in this sort of work before I realized it. She made me accountable."

"I geared my talk to the undergraduates that night," says Foeckler, an emeritus professor of social work at UGA, "but it was Donna who called and set up an appointment to ask more questions about pursuing social work as a career. Avant-garde might be the accurate term to define her style. She's ahead of everyone else in problem solving, and she tackles extremely serious social issues so creatively."

Carson doesn't boast about her accomplishments. "It's all done for love," she says—and you can tell by the way she looks you in the eye that she means it.

But the Oprah award isn't the first time Carson has been recognized for her work on behalf of Atlanta's at-risk children. In 1999, she received the Child Survival Award, presented by UNICEF-Atlanta and the Carter Center, for her work with Project Prevent.

The $100,000 check Carson received from Oprah is one that will keep on giving, in terms of publicity for My House. And Carson appreciates the fact that the "Use Your Life Award" staff has kept in touch.

"They call me about every week," she says with a smile. "They feel connected to My House—like a family."

The scrapbook Carson's staff sent to Oprah is on display at My House. On one of the pages, a quote has been pulled out of a letter and highlighted. There, on a blue paper angel cutout, are these words: "I met an angel and her name is Donna Carson."

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