Tonight's picture was taken on May 27 of 2007. We took Mattie to Amish Country for Memorial Day weekend, and while touring around, we also went to Dutch Wonderland. I had learned about this theme park from one of the preschool moms at Mattie's school. The beauty of this park is it is geared toward this age group, making it rather a pleasant experience in a way! I know when I was Mattie's age, people dressed in costume absolutely scared me to death. I would have been running the opposite direction of this dinosaur. Mattie usually had a healthy fear of certain things, but "Duke" did not bother Mattie in the least. Perhaps because Mattie was used to seeing Barney, the purple dinosaur, on TV. Clearly as you can see Mattie had no problem posing for a photo, and he had a big smile on his face as well!
Quote of the day: You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give. ~ Winston Churchill
I am posting the blog early today! Peter and I are headed to Columbus, Ohio tonight. Originally our flight was scheduled to leave at 3pm. But with weather up North, our flight is delayed until 6pm. Or later, I am not sure! Hopefully we will make it safely to Columbus. We have been invited to give the keynote talk at tomorrow's Department of Health meeting for the State of Ohio. Ohio is opening up its State Health Plan and revising it to include a more comprehensive psychosocial childhood cancer plan. This is actually an historic meeting. Ohio is the first State in the Country to have a Cancer Plan to include psychosocial care.
When Peter and I gave our keynote address at the Association of Pediatric Hematology Oncology Educational Specialists (APHOES) conference in March, a representative from the Ohio Department of Health was in the audience. She liked our presentation so much, she invited us back to her conference to kick off her event. This is a wonderful opportunity for Mattie Miracle and we are very excited to be able to participate and to learn from Ohio. As a licensed mental health professional, I am well aware of the fact that the State of Ohio has always been a visionary. They have vigorous licensure laws, usually develop standards before many other States, and other States typically look to Ohio when creating their own frameworks and documentation.
In March of 2012, Mattie Miracle hosted the Psychosocial Childhood Cancer Symposium on Capitol Hill. This was the first event of its kind to ever be held on the Hill. Doing such an event was actually a gamble in a way, but we took a chance and did it. The event was a success, so much so we had to turn people away because of room capacity. In attendance that day were congressional staffers, congressional members, mental health professionals, and parent advocates. Over 12 States were represented! That was the beginning of our National movement, in which we then launched our think tanks, assembled the standards project team of over 50 professionals, and began the development of a standards draft which at the moment is an 110 page document. This has all been in two years time. It is a movement in its own right and something we take great pride in. But like all great movements it wouldn't be getting anywhere if it did not have great people working on it! We have been so fortunate to meet stellar and committed professionals who share our vision and as they say we inspire them, they inspire us as well.
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