About The McAfee Foundation for Children and Youth

Our Purpose

The McAfee Foundation for Children & Youth was founded in 2006. In partnership with The Children's Medical Center of Dayton, our purpose is to provide assistance to children whose families need help covering expenses related to respiratory illnesses. Typically, these expenses are used to help with the cost of medication until other arrangements can be made. The Foundation also assists with other costs related to pediatric respiratory treatment.

About McAfee Heating & Air Conditioning

McAfee Heating & Air Conditioning was founded in 1990. Over the years, founder and president, Greg McAfee became more educated in indoor air quality and the effects it has on people with respiratory problems - especially children.

He began offering services such as air duct cleaning, air purification systems and carpet cleaning in a continuous effort to become a complete indoor air quality resource. McAfee's employees have also become involved with the effort, having worked closely with many customers who suffer from respiratory illnesses.

Article: "Foundation helps ease families' early costs for asthma meds"

From The Dayton Daily News, Aug. 26, 2006

By Kevin Lamb, Staff Writer

The child's chronic wheezing had progressed to frightening gasps for breath when his mother took him to Children's Medical Center's emergency room. The newly diagnosed asthma was controllable, doctors said, but only with expensive drugs.

"Even when a family qualifies for Medicaid, it might take two weeks to get the coverage started," said Dr. Robert Fink, Children's director of pulmonary medicine. "We don't want them back every night until then."

Solving that common problem is the purpose of the McAfee Foundation for Kids & Youth. All of the 21 employees at McAfee Heating and Air Conditioning contribute, and it gives Children's $20 here and $50 there to help parents buy what they need to avoid a $200 or $5,000 bill next month.

The foundation is rare not only for its unanimous employee donations on top of McAfee's corporate giving, but also in assisting a medical specialty that's so relevant to the work of an indoor-air-quality company.

Demand for children's pulmonary care is growing fast. Asthma alone is the leading cause of school absences nationally and ranks third in children's hospitalizations. The Dayton area's per-capita rate of asthma cases is 11 percent higher than the U.S. rate, and the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America ranks it 34th worst for asthma.

McAfee's workers see a lot of people with lung disease. They're the ones most likely to want their air ducts cleaned, their furnace filters upgraded or their homes tested for mold. This time of year, ragweed allergies boost their demand.

Since buying one of the first machines for cleaning air ducts in 1993, owner Greg McAfee has shifted more of his business to clean air and the asthma, cancer and cystic fibrosis patients who desperately need it. He went into carpet cleaning two years ago, for example, because dust mites play a big role in lung health.

When the local American Lung Association branch folded into the Cincinnati office, McAfee shifted his long-time contributions to Children's pulmonary department. Since May, the foundation has donated about $4,000. It's aiming for $12,000 to $15,000 this year, $10,000 from corporate profits.

Knowing the financial stress of lung disease, McAfee doesn't restrict the foundation's money to medical payments. A hospital stay might also make a family late on its utility bills, he said.

"For children with respiratory disease, it's imperative that they have air conditioning during the hot summer months," he said.

Even insured patients often lack the $30 copayments for each asthma drug when the hospital sends a child home, Fink said. "That comes up regularly." Other supplies aren't covered.

"This is tremendously helpful for a significant number of families," Fink said. "It's not going to buy long-term medicines, but it takes care of the immediate problem while we work on a long-term solution."