Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2009, literally in the pre-op room before Mattie's sternotomy. If you look closely we taped a sign to Mattie's gown which read, "Dr. Chahine, give us a Mattie Miracle." Dr. Chahine was the surgeon who was performing Mattie's lung surgery. It was a tough morning for us and all of us were very anxious.
Quote of the day: You may not have saved a lot of money in your life, but if you have saved a lot of heartaches for other folks, you are a pretty rich man. ~ Seth Parker
I then said a few words about our financial goal for the Walk ($80,000), and how much money we raised as of the day of the Walk ($77,000). I then announced our award winners..........
- Top Adult Fundraiser: Peggy Elkind (over $5,000)
- Top Teen Fundraiser: Ryan Goldstein (over $3,000)
- Top Team Fundraiser: RCC and Friends (over $8,000)
- Team with the Most Registered Participants: Blessed Sacrament Bullfrogs
- Team Spirit Award: Team SAINTS
I then shared with our attendees the two major things we learned from Mattie's battle with cancer, and how this guides our work and mission. First, we learned that childhood cancer is NOT just about the medicine. Which is why we fund a child life professional at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, provide free snack carts to families caring for children at two local hospitals, and have been leading the charge (through the development of psychosocial standards of care) for the inclusion of psychosocial care as part of comprehensive cancer care.
The second guiding principle is that the psychosocial issues do not end when the treatment does. We felt the best way to visually show this was through our Faces of Hope posters, which feature the faces of survivors, and then new this year, our Forever Heroes posters. Our Forever Heroes posters feature the faces of children who lost their battle with cancer. The message we were trying to convey to the observer was that cancer treatment leaves survivors with long term psychosocial consequences and that losing a child to cancer, results in a host of life long psychosocial issues for the families left behind.
1 comment:
Vicki, I listened attentively to you & Peter as you spoke before we all started walking. We were in the middle of the crowd and could really hear you well. Usually, in a crowd that large with a microphone, you still can't hear the speaker but people were listening. When you started talking about what you & Peter learned during Mattie's battle, you could have heard a pin drop in our little area.
Team Kimber is comprised of a group that believes strongly in Psychosocial support or is in need of it from Cancer loss.
While I wish Team Kimber was a larger group, all the people involved right down to,SADIE MAE & CAROLINE understood the significance of the day.
Thank you Peter & Vicki
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