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, 2018

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2009. Mattie's best preschool buddy, Zachary, came to the hospital to visit Mattie. In fact, Zachary was very present in Mattie's life even through cancer, with visits both at home and in the hospital. It isn't easy as an adult to visit a hospital, much less a child with cancer. So I can imagine how scary and daunting it must be for a child. Pre-cancer, Mattie and Zachary had a physically active form of play, as they were constantly moving around, running, and jumping. Once Mattie had cancer, the way they played with each other had to change. Again this could have been a game changer for some children, but Zachary found a way to make it work. A special friend.



Quote of the day: Being authentic will get you where you need and want to go, and it will be your path to building the most meaningful and enriching connections with others. ~ Michelle Tillis Lederman


As I mentioned in February 24th's blog, I use an on-line site called Gigmasters to find local vendors for the Mattie Miracle Walk & Family Festival. GigMasters is an event services booking platform that matches your needs with entertainers, planners of weddings, dances, parties, festivals, celebrations and corporate events. They are so easy to use and provide great descriptions and reviews, so you can pick the right person for your event. 

This past weekend, I learned about a whole new service called Roaming Hunger. No one told me about it, I just came across it while doing Google searches. I mention this because it is like Gigmasters, however their focus is food. Roaming Hunger is a food truck booking service that allows people to find food trucks in real time, book trucks for upcoming events, and engage food trucks for advertising and promotional purposes. 

I wanted to replace our ice cream vendor at this year's Walk. However, it is easier said than done to find a food truck that will work your event. You can search for reputable food trucks on-line, but it is time consuming, on top of that, you then have to reach out to each one and explain your needs. By going through Roaming Hunger, you just contact ONE PERSON, explain your needs and requests are then sent out to their food truck network! 

All week, I have been getting ice cream, frozen yogurt and ices vendors contacting me. However, I went with a couple who owns an ice cream store in Leesberg, VA and sells Hershey's Ice Cream. They have agreed to come to the walk and sell (not popsicles like last year's vendor) actual scooped ice cream. They will supply us with 12 different flavors as well as two flavors of ices, and donate 10% of sales. 




So I can officially say, I have lined up all our vendors for this year's Walk on May 20th, and we have more activities than ever before.............................

  1. a Challenge Walk
  2. Two enormous inflatable moon bounces
  3. A corn hole tournament with three top prizes
  4. A raffle, with baskets valued at over $500 each
  5. Lego displays and hands on activities
  6. A 30 minute Reptile Alive show, followed by a 30 minute meet and greet with the animals
  7. A magic show
  8. Make your own crafts
  9. A great DJ
  10. professional caricaturist
  11. professional face painter
  12. Food from local vendors
  13. corporate sponsor tables
  14. Lawn Games

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