Mattie Miracle Walk 2023 was a $131,249 success!

Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation Promotional Video

Thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive!

Dear Mattie Blog Readers,

It means a great deal to us that you take the time to write to us and to share your thoughts, feelings, and reflections on Mattie's battle and death. Your messages are very meaningful to us and help support us through very challenging times. To you we are forever grateful. As my readers know, I promised to write the blog for a year after Mattie's death, which would mean that I could technically stop writing on September 9, 2010. However, at the moment, I feel like our journey with grief still needs to be processed and fortunately I have a willing support network still committed to reading. Therefore, the blog continues on. If I should find the need to stop writing, I assure you I will give you advanced notice. In the mean time, thank you for reading, thank you for having the courage to share this journey with us, and most importantly thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive.


As Mattie would say, Ooga Booga (meaning, I LOVE YOU)! Vicki and Peter



The Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation celebrates its 7th anniversary!

The Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation was created in the honor of Mattie.

We are a 501(c)(3) Public Charity. We are dedicated to increasing childhood cancer awareness, education, advocacy, research and psychosocial support services to children, their families and medical personnel. Children and their families will be supported throughout the cancer treatment journey, to ensure access to quality psychosocial and mental health care, and to enable children to cope with cancer so they can lead happy and productive lives. Please visit the website at: www.mattiemiracle.com and take some time to explore the site.

We have only gotten this far because of people like yourself, who have supported us through thick and thin. So thank you for your continued support and caring, and remember:

.... Let's Make the Miracle Happen and Stomp Out Childhood Cancer!

A Remembrance Video of Mattie

March 1, 2017

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2005. This was actually at Mattie's third birthday party. I hired a George Washington University student to do a magic show for the kids as well as make balloon animals. Mattie had a great time, and so did everyone else. The magician brought a real life rabbit... which was a hit. 


Quote of the day: It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. 
~ Charles Dickens



Today was an absolutely ridiculous weather day! It was sunny and humid in the morning and by noon, things were turning! With torrential rain, dark skies and let's not forget about whipping wind. Sunny was BESIDES himself. He doesn't like the sound of rain or storms. Who could blame him. 

Later in the day, Sunny was getting stir crazy, so we took a walk. Right outside the Kennedy Center we could hear a racket! So loud that both Sunny and I stopped in our tracks to observe. What was it...... a ton of crows all in the trees squawking. I tried to get a photo of a few of them. But imagine every tree dotted with crows. I literally felt like I was in a Hitchcock movie with them watching us.  



It is my hope that you will consider signing this petition to the White House. Just click on the link below. It wouldn't take much time at all. This petition was created by a fellow cancer mom who lost her son to osteosarcoma. Each year the childhood cancer community asks the president to light the White House in Gold. Gold is the color of childhood cancer awareness, and September is childhood cancer awareness month. The month in which you may see people wearing gold items and buildings in your city may actually be lit up in gold lights in September. However, to date, the White House has yet to acknowledge how this disease impacts children. So now a new petition and requests are being made to President Trump. 


THE PETITION....
Turn the White House ‘Gold’ for kids with cancer

https://www.change.org/p/turn-the-white-house-gold-for-kids-with-cancer?source_location=petition_nav


(Pictured... the White House with a Red Ribbon for HIV awareness)

Another fellow cancer advocate, Ruth Hoffman of the American Childhood Cancer Organization, received this letter from the White House last year as a response to her request to light up the House in GOLD. It said.....

"We have asked about lighting the WH up on behalf of requests that have come in, and for pediatric cancer specifically. As I’m sure you know, many diseases and advocacy groups have a color they use for awareness and the number of requests have been very high since 2009. Unfortunately a policy was set that we would not be able to add additional annual light ups. Bill Clinton and George Bush each chose one during their Administrations; breast cancer and HIV. The White House kept those two on behalf of past Administrations. The LGBT lighting for the Supreme Court decision was a one time historic event so the policy was lifted for that one time, but won’t be annual.

(Pictured... the White House lit up in Pink for Breast Cancer awareness)

We have asked if the policy will change in the future and will continue to pursue it. Thus far it seems as though adding an annual lighting, or choosing only some of the many awareness colors out of the requests we’ve received is something we won’t be able to do, at least for now.


(Pictured.... the White House lit up in rainbow lights in acknowledgment of LGBT issues)

Thank you again, and please be in touch. We’ll absolutely keep you posted if anything changes.


The White House"



Now what will lighting the White House in Gold actually accomplish? Will it help with funding? Will it provide new treatments for children with cancer? Will it save lives? Support children and their families? The answer to all of these questions is NO! So why do it? The childhood cancer community wants to do this because seeing the White House in Gold would send an important message to our society.... childhood cancer exists, it impacts our children and their families, and more has to be done because children are the future of any great Country. If we do not bring awareness to these issues at the highest government level, then true change is hard to achieve. PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION!

1 comment:

Margy Jost said...

Vicki,
I signed again now on your blog it went through so I am assuming you can do it more than once!

It is absolutely incomprehensible to me that the WHITE HOUSE has not gone gold yet. There seems no good reason to justify this.
Yes, it would go a long ways to make children in treatment and their famikes feel the support of the Country with this gesture of support & kindness!