Host Spotlight: The Walker Family
Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
We are Jennifer and Clark Walker and we have four kids ages five and under! I moved to Charlottesville in 2008 to do a 9 month Fellows program through our church and Clark moved here in 2001 to attend UVA undergrad. We met in 2008 and got married in 2010 and have since made Cville our home. Clark is the Athletic Director at a Christian school in town (Covenant) and I am a stay-at-home mom who runs a fairly busy Airbnb busy on the side. We love playing and attending all sorts of athletic events (especially UVA basketball!!), we enjoy being outdoors as much as possible, and we love Chick-fil-a.
How did you become involved with LilyPads Housing?
In 2017, our third child was born with a life-threatening low platelet count that got him transferred from the
private hospital in town to UVA. He had several blood transfusions and lots of testing and was ultimately discharged and is a healthy and happy child today. During our couple week stay at the hospital, I was struck by how blessed we were to live a mile away. This enabled Clark, my mom, and I to easily take shifts and swap with one another. Many other children on the unit were by themselves (if their parents lived far away) or their family was having to rent a hotel and spend a lot of money. When I heard about LilyPads, I was immediately interested since we have extra space to offer to people that is conveniently located near the hospital.
Why did you become a host?
We became a host for two reasons: 1) We understand the stress of having a child in the hospital. If we can help ease any of the stress through free housing close to UVA, we are happy to do that. 2) We host a lot through Airbnb, so we are very familiar with welcoming people into our home! Through Airbnb over the past 3 years, we have had over 1000 guests!
Is there anything else that you would like your guests to know?
Because we have four young children, our house can oftentimes be a little crazy. We tend to be out of the house during the mornings and our kids sleep from 8-8. We are happy to give you the space you need and allow you to come and go as you please.