Readers Care: Rise n' Shine offers hand to young

For the 10-year-old Brier girl, that's all the requirement needed for her to enjoy their weekly visits. Plus, she gets away from her two brothers picking on her.

And keeps her from thinking about her father, who was diagnosed with HIV before she was born.

Andrus, the second-oldest of four children ages 2 to 13, was paired with Anne Heartsong, a volunteer with Rise n' Shine, just over three years ago.

The Seattle-based non-profit organization focuses on helping children who have been diagnosed with HIV or AIDS or have a relative with the disease. Volunteers serve 183 children, most of whom live with a single parent suffering from a socially isolating disease. The volunteers provide emotional and material support to them and their families.

"She's the oldest girl and is very motherly, trying to be a caretaker," Heartsong said. "It's not her job to take care of her family."

So Heartsong, 47, drives from her Woodinville home to take Andrus shopping, skateboarding at the park or to the movies.

Earlier this week, when the pair became stuck in Woodinville, trapped in ice and snow, Andrus spent the night at Heartsong's home.

She said she chose Andrus simply after seeing her name on a piece of paper. She found Rise n' Shine on the Internet, looking for a way to give back to children, knowing how it felt to lose a parent at a young age. Her mother died when she was 5, and a kindergarten teacher took Heartsong and her sister to her home for meals and away time while their father coped with the loss of his wife.

"I took on a lot of the blame and responsibility and (the kindergarten teacher) filled in that space for me," Heartsong said of the woman, now 85 and still in contact with her.

That lifelong bond they shared is why, decades later, she decided to give back to children now that her two daughters are grown.

She tries to help Andrus forget about the medical problems her father, Jason Andrus, 32, suffers from, including a debilitating bone marrow disease that can't be treated without shutting down his immune system already weakened by HIV. Her mother, Beccie Andrus, 30, works and attends school full time and cares for her husband.

The couple found out about his illness July 31, 1995, just three days before discovering they were pregnant with Andrus. They have had two other children since. All are HIV-negative, Beccie Andrus said.

So while the two ride in the car during their visits, Heartsong never turns on the radio, giving Andrus a chance to talk. Sometimes they sit in silence.

Sometimes the little girl offers some feeling about her situation.

"I don't remember when they told me," she said about her father's illness. But her family doesn't talk about it much, and it's hard for her sometimes, she said.

Her mother credits Rise n' Shine with giving her daughter an escape from her worries. Someone to look up to so she doesn't turn to some of the bad things children do when they have nowhere else to go.

For Heartsong, she said she took in much more than just a 10-year-old girl.

"She's part of my family, and I'm part of her family," she said. "I had no idea all that I would get back."

LEARN MORE

For more than a quarter-century, Seattle P-I readers have donated generously to the newspaper's annual Readers Care Fund, generating more than $5.4 million for local charities. Today we feature another one of the seven charities that will benefit from this year's drive.

P-I reporter Cherie Black can be reached at 206-448-8180 or cherieblack@seattlepi.com.

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