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

May 1, 2017

Monday, May 1, 2017

Monday, May 1, 2017

Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2009. We were at my friend Christine's backyard, and she hosted a birthday party for Mattie. Mattie's birthday was in April and he celebrated his 7th birthday in the hospital. When he home between treatments, Christine had a party with many of Mattie's friends. She had the company Reptiles Alive come to celebrate Mattie's birthday and they brought a boat load of creepy and crawling things with them. Right up Mattie's alley. As you can see he wasn't at all afraid of this snake. Unlike myself, who was on the opposite side, but zoomed in with my camera lens to take this photo! 


Quote of the day: Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goals: my strength lies solely in my tenacity. ~ Louis Pasteur


I honestly don't know what is happening to our Nation's Capital. Over the course of the last 5 years, I have seen an enormous decline and to me it starts with graffiti. I CAN'T stand it. To me it is about the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I addressed these same three areas with the Department of Power and Works last spring. They actually cleaned it but as soon as things get cleaned, the vandalism happens weeks later. As a private citizen I would love to go out and clean it myself, but if I should I would be the one arrested. Today, I reported this once again, because I can't tolerate this. It upsets my mind and it detracts from our community. Perhaps society as a whole! Mind you this nonsense is right outside the State Department. Who does NOTHING about it! 

The next horror show is by the Kennedy Center. I would love to have a private surveillance camera capture these people who spread this garbage around on our walls. I imagine in some Countries like Singapore, such filth wouldn't be tolerated and there would be consequences. 



The third area is the wall behind the metal fence you see above the green signs. Sunny and I walk passed here every day, and I can't tolerate it. I spent thirty minutes inputting my requests on the DC graffiti removal website today because I reached my maximum. 


It was a busy day of work. The executive director of Momcology, a national organization comprised of parent advocates contacted me today and we had a lengthy and significant conversation. Momcology has 6,000 members and 150 new families join their support network weekly. 

Momcology was formed to help bridge the gap of loneliness any parent feels once their child is diagnosed with cancer. They offer on-line support groups and now are running evidence based groups at select hospitals. The executive director found out about Mattie Miracle and the standards from attending a conference and was told to reach out to us. Momcology wants to endorse the standards and I am happy that they also want to do some assessments of families to see if they are aware of the standards and better yet find out whether they received standard psychosocial care during the treatment process. Our hunch is that what families report and health care providers report are like night and day. Mattie Miracle has been looking for a meaningful way to access and assess families and partnering with Momcology will be a win win for both of us. In many ways it is humbling that organizations view Mattie Miracle as the advocacy leader of psychosocial care for children with cancer and their families. 



Meanwhile later today, the chaos only grew in Mattie's room as I was making placards for each of our raffle baskets. I have done this eight years in a row, so in many ways I have this down to a science. Nonetheless it takes time and effort. But the goal is to make things as enticing as possible in order to inspire Walk attendees to purchase raffle tickets. 



1 comment:

Margy Jost said...

Vicki, ABSOLUTELY AMAZING to partner with MOMCOLOGY! Mattie Miracle is the perfect Foundation for them to contact. You are working to accomplish many of the things, that parents search to find yet of course don't! There is nothing really in place constantly that any Child or their parent can count on to be there each time a proble arise. No matter, what anyone says, the need for Psychosocial stands of care is a necessity!

I am sorry about the graffiti, it detracts from the area and some of what is written nor only detracts but is deplorable. I hope someone quickly fixes once again the areas.

The raffle baskets & signs look great! But what a lot of work