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

June 3, 2017

Saturday, June 3, 2017

Saturday, June 3, 2017

Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2003. This was Mattie's first trip to a beach. We took him to the Outer Banks and I can assure you he was NOT a happy camper. He disliked the feel of the sand and the sound of the surf crashing onto the shore. Mattie always had good sense and knew there were some things he had to be cautious about. A safe fear of the water was just fine by me. In any case, we stayed at the beach for a week, but that was the only time we actually went to the beach. On that trip, Mattie preferred playing with the hose on the deck of the house that we rented. 


Quote of the day: I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. Christopher Reeve



We have come full circle! On Memorial Day, Peter and I were focused on designing and completing cupcake towers for our friend's party. She sent us a photo today as she was setting things up at her son's school. Here is one of the cupcake towers, and the second is on a different table. Frankly if the tower wasn't there, this would have been a very barren table. I wasn't consulted on set up, just tasked with the towers. 


Well, I have another week's worth of photos from the Walk to post. So even while I am away next week, I still will be sharing Walk photos. Tonight's photos capture the Corn Hole Tournament we ran. We had 42 people signed up for the Tournament, which is double the number of last year. 

This is Jack Wood, he is our first place winner of the Tournament. Jack won four diamond level seats to a Nats game, which includes parking and food. This package is worth close to $800. Of which we thank Debbie and Peter Keefe for this VERY generous contribution to our event. 


This is David Christman. David is our second place winner of the Tournament. David won an iPad Air, which we thank Mary and Mike Doane for this very generous contribution! 
This is Nate Prehn. Nate is our third place winner. Nate won a $50 gift certificate to The Cheesecake Factory (thanks to the Cheesecake Factory) and 10 Mattie Miracle Raffle tickets. 
Peter ran the corn hole tournament, along with our trusty husband/wife team: Patricia and Bernie Tilch (standing behind Peter in this photo). This may sound easy to do, but the tournament is complicated because you have to make sure registered individuals are playing, someone has to watch and score all six boards which are playing simultaneously, and someone has to coordinate and track all 42 players. 

 Some of our players!
The boards and volunteers. Volunteers are key, we couldn't have had a successful tournament without their judging!
This fellow is the grandson of Mattie's sedation nurse, Debbi. This is the second year he has attended the Walk, and I hear the Walk is a hit with the whole family. 
 More players.
This is Tricia, Mattie's favorite HEM/ONC nurse! Tricia and her entire family come to EVERY Foundation Walk. She hasn't missed one in 8 years. 
A close up of our corn hole boards. These boards were constructed last year by a Girl Scout Troop at Mattie's school. With A LOT of help from Peter. 

1 comment:

Margy Jost said...

Vicki,

I love the picture of Mattie!!! I always think a child who is leery of things that can be potential dangers is brilliant.

I also love your quote. Heroes are ordinary people yet today it seems so important to focus attention on overly paid sports people or people famous for other reasons instead of looking around at the person who just copes everyday jumping hurdles to survive.
It is why in my world, hero is defined as one who endures through treatment for Childhood Cancer treatment and lives life best, they can.