Thursday, December 4, 2014

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Tonight's picture was taken in November of 2003. We took Mattie to Frying Pan Park in Herndon, VA. Mattie was intrigued by the animals!!! He wanted to reach out and touch them and they were coming on over to visit him as well. As you can see so was a black Labrador Retriever. It was quite a show that day, but Mattie was happiest when he was outside, in the fresh air, in wide open spaces and without a lot of chaos and people around him. 


Quote of the day: Without fear, we are able to see more clearly our connections to others. Without fear, we have more room for understanding and compassion. Without fear, we are truly free. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

Today I ventured to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD, to deliver my last round of candy. Now visiting NIH may not sound like a major problem, unless you have actually driven onto this campus before (I included a schematic of this nightmare for other directionally challenged people like myself so you could see it for yourself). It is like a compound. First of all, you can't just freely drive into it and park! You first have to get through security. Which means you have to get out of your car, open up your doors and trunk for inspection, move away from your vehicle and go inside to walk through a metal detector and have your government issued ID checked.

While I was inside going through the metal detector, the guard who was inspecting my car, came back inside to get me. She had me come back outside because all the other inspectors wanted to meet me! Why? Because they wanted to meet the candy lady! They are used to inspecting cars every day, but it was a first for them to inspect a car with a trunk load of candy! They said it was very hard to resist inspecting the trunk without taking the candy and wanted to know where the candy was going. When I told them it was going to the Children's Inn on campus, their response was.... "we wouldn't take any candy away from the children!" 

In June 1990, The Children's Inn at NIH opened its doors to pediatric patients and their families. Since then The Inn has been in continuous operation: 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The doors never close. During the past 24 years, more than 12,712 seriously ill children and their families have made 50,000 visits to The Inn. Children and families travel from all over the world to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) because conventional treatments have failed to have sufficient impact on their illnesses. Children receive treatment for illnesses such as cancer, heart, lung, blood, bone and growth disorders, mental illnesses, and HIV infection. The Inn stand in sharp contrast to the isolation of a hotel room. In the lively atmosphere of The Inn, the kids and their families can put aside the challenges they face. The Inn gives kids a place to be kids for a while, instead of patients. At the end of the treatment day, they leave behind the IV drips, the needles, the nurses and doctors to return to The Inn and, most importantly, to the comforting presence of their families and caring staff and volunteers.

The Inn itself is quite lovely! I have visited it once before when I first went out there to visit Lori Wiener, who is our lead psycho-oncologist on our National Standards of Care project. The Inn really feels just like it sounds..... like an Inn. Even the carts look like hotel carts, not some sort of institutionalized vehicle. In any case I will never forget the face of a young girl today who saw this cart load of candy. Her eyes became glued to the cart and literally you could see she wanted to know just when she was going to get her hands on the candy! It was totally adorable. 

I am pictured here with Laura King, the Senior Director of Volunteers and Community Outreach. 

When I think about how much candy I have processed this week alone it is down right incredible. I did not think it could honestly be done. It involved a lot of hauling, lifting, moving, and driving ALL over DC, Virginia, and Maryland, but the mission has been accomplished. Candy Drive 2014 is officially DONE!!!!