ISU students have a chance to help a family and get a meal at the same time during a fund-raiser today and Tuesday.

Employees at Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar and Grill, 105 Chestnut St., will be donating two days’ worth of tips to ISU student Michelle Hall and her husband Steve in an effort to help them pay for respiratory therapy for their two children, Alex and Shade. The boys have been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and require daily therapy to help treat the disease.

Michelle Hall, mother of the two boys, said the family will be using money raised from Applebee’s to purchase a “ThAIRapy” vest for their younger son Shade. While insurance has already helped pay for Alex’s vest, Shade’s will cost $16,000.

“It’s very difficult to convince insurance companies we need another vest because they are very expensive,” Michelle Hall said. “If both boys need therapy four times a day with one piece of equipment, that’s eight cycles, which will take up the whole day. We won’t be able to do anything; we will be rotating off the machine all day.”

Cystic fibrosis is the No. 1 genetic killer, and it affects 30,000 children and young adults in the United States. The disease shortens an individual’s average life span to around 30 years and strikes all of the mucus lining in the body, particularly in the lungs. This deteriorates the lungs to the point that they quit functioning.

Alex, who will be 5 years old in December, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at 2-and-a-half months. His brother Shade, 19 months, is also infected with the disease.

Hall, graduate student in education leadership and policy studies, said the vest is a preventative process to keep her sons healthy and normal children.

“The vest is respiratory therapy, used one to four times a day, 30 minutes each session,” she said. “It vibrates the lungs, allowing lungs to release and loosen up mucus so they can cough the mucus out. It releases pressure.”

Since both her children need to use the vest, Hall said it would be difficult to provide therapy for them both if they were not at home.

“If one of them wanted to go spend the night at a cousin’s or visit grandparents, how would I be able to decide which got to have therapy for the day and which didn’t?” she said.

Todd Olson, general manager of Applebee’s, said the Hall family are regular patrons, and the fund-raiser is a way for the restaurant to help.

“It’s slower those days of the week. We hope to pull people in who normally wouldn’t come in so we can focus on the event,” he said. “People don’t have as much going on as during the weekend.”

Olson said he posted a sign-up sheet for workers willing to give up their tips.

“There were lots of people that signed up,” he said. “It’s a good cause.”

Olson and Michelle Hall said they are also attempting to convince Applebee’s corporate office to match the amount raised from the local Ames restaurant.

While she has been a part of many fund-raisers for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Michelle Hall said this event will be different.

“This is the first fund-raiser that will benefit us directly,” she said. “Every other fund-raiser has been for research.”