Maricopa Ace leads state in Children’s Miracle Network fund-raiser

Maricopans made their Ace Hardware the state leader in the company’s April “Round Up for Kids” campaign for Children’s Miracle Network.

Ace customers opted to have their bills rounded up to the next dollar, with the extra cents going to a local CMN hospital.

In Maricopa, 34.7 percent of customers participated, raising $3,870.69 for Phoenix Children’s Hospital, according to store owner Mike Richey. That was 13th out of about 850 participating stores in the country and the best in Arizona. (Frontier Ace Hardware in Apache Junction was next closest in 25th place with $3,112.29.)

“We’re just fortunate enough to be in a community that supports us and supports these types of programs,” Richey said. “The community of Maricopa cares, and so we’re simply involved in the community, and it all works out just great.”

Richey said the Round Up was important from the beginning. In 2014 there were more than 340 children in the Maricopa area who were treated at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

“It’s just too big of an impact on the local community not to support it,” he said.

Ace’s paint manager, Andrea Roccio, was among those who had to use the services of PCH. When her daughter was a year old, she became very ill, and the staff at Chandler Regional Medical Center could not come up with a diagnosis. She was airlifted to PCH, where they determined she had been stung by a scorpion. Back at work, Roccio was full of praise for the staff and treatment.

“It’s something that happens hundreds of times a year for Maricopa kids,” Richey said.

PCH is a nonprofit organization with six centers. Nationwide the Round Up Campaign brought in $775,000 to hospitals in the CMN, an increase of 86 percent from last April.

This month, Maricopa Ace has another Round Up in place to raise money for Maricopa Little League.