Monday, January 23, 2012Tonight's picture was taken in February of 2009 right in the middle of the pediatric unit hallway. Along side Mattie was Anna, his physical therapist pushing his IV pole, and behind Mattie was Jessie (Mattie's art therapist) and Linda (Mattie's childlife specialist). This was what a typical physical therapy session looked like when Mattie was in-patient. I am not sure I know of too many other hospitals that would have done this. But therapy at Georgetown became a family affair. These women understood what a feat it was for Mattie to exercise and move his body when he was in SO much pain, that they all joined forces and made therapy as fun and interesting as it could possibly be. As you can see, Mattie made himself a long tail of plastic cones attached to his walker that day and put Jessie in charge of carrying it. Everyone in Mattie's therapy scenario had a purpose and a job. As we moved through the hallways we weren't quiet either. Mattie was either singing something, chatting up a storm, giving out directions, or on really tough days, Linda would carry a boom box with her and blast out ABBA music. Needless to say, Mattie caught a lot of attention on ABBA days!
Quote of the day: The heart is the only broken instrument that works. ~ T.E. Kalem
I had to think about this quote for a while. As we know an instrument is not only for playing music, but an instrument can also refer to an electrical or mechanical device. The heart is such a device because it is an organ that is controlled by a precise electrical system that sends signals to contract the heart's walls. Thankfully though unlike other instruments, when the heart figuratively breaks, it doesn't STOP working. Or does it? We wouldn't be human if we did not experience what it feels like to have our heart strings pulled and occasionally broken by others. However, contrary to what the quote implies, I do believe that when our heart is emotionally broken, there are ramifications on how it works. In fact our heart may not function like it once did when broken by stress and trauma. After all, we know that stress is highly linked to heart disease and therefore over time our emotions may cause major changes to our heart. Changes that impact the blood supply to the rest of our body. We are constantly bombarded with information about heart health, through diet and exercise, but I would also add that keeping this electrical instrument healthy also requires a mental and emotional devotion. A devotion that requires the presence of others in our lives, people who appreciate us, people who make us feel needed, wanted, and special. That may sound trite, but human beings require this in order to keep our minds and bodies stable.
On Wednesday, January 25th, Mattie Miracle will be having a five percent sales day at Whole Foods in Alexandria, VA (5% of ALL sales that day will go to the Foundation!). The momentum in our community is growing in anticipation of this day and it is my hope that Whole Foods gets a Wednesday turnout like they never had before. Messages are all over town and even Georgetown University Hospital is sending out messages about the event through Twitter!
On the 25th there will be three vendors at the store doing food demonstrations on our behalf. We are very grateful to Pork Barrel BBQ (www.porkbarrel.com), Mom Made Foods (www.mommadefoods.com), and Perfect Foods Bar (www.perfectfoodsbar.com) who are supporting us with their service and wonderful food products! In addition from 11am to 2pm, the Georgetown University Hospital nurses will be at the store offering free health screenings! In the midst of planning these things, one of our avid supporters and friends donated money to the Foundation to have a Super Bowl raffle basket at the Whole Foods event. The goal being to raise additional funds for the Foundation. So over the course of the last two weeks, I have been purchasing items for this raffle item! Below if the finished product!
Here is the announcement I created today that will go on display at the store. 
I assembled this raffle item in Mattie's room, and today we ran all over town searching for Patriots and Giants items. That was quite an ordeal for some reason! But we were successful!
Here is the final wrapped product. The irony is that I have learned to create, stage, and wrap baskets from working on our Foundation Raffle over the years. However, Peter has never watched me put a basket together since in the past I always assembled and completed them at Ann's house. So for him watching me in action was novel. However, Peter feels he has found another job for me if the foundation doesn't work out.... baskets by Vicki! NO THANK YOU!The Washington Post is featuring charities this week who are sponsoring local events and Mattie Miracle was mentioned. Check it out! I hope to see you on Wednesday! Come by and say hi! We will be in the front entrance of the store. You can't miss us!
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