Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2009. Mattie was having a visit to the clinic and in typical Mattie fashion was full of antics. In fact, he and Jessie (his art therapist) were having wheel chair races in the middle of the clinic. This was the beauty of Mattie Brown. Even dealing with cancer, he had a life about him which caused people to gravitate to him. 


Quote of the day: Grief is learning that it’s possible for a part of you to die while you are still living. ~ Uma Girish


Tonight's Walk photos, capture the actual Walk.......................................

Before the walk actually began, Peter and I both greeted our participants. Peter gave a wonderful update about the Foundation's activities, and I shared Walk facts such as our fundraising totals, our top fundraising individuals and teams. I also acknowledged that we had four children with cancer in attendance and wanted to commend their courage and strength. In particular, I wanted to remind everyone that we walk for these children and children like them. I then explained that everyone would be walking passed 90 hurdles with posters on them along the track. I mentioned that if each hurdle represented a child with cancer, then these 90 hurdles would illustrate the number of children diagnosed with cancer EVERY two days in the United States. In addition, these 90 hurdles would also reflect the number of children who die in the USA in less than one month's time. 

Top Individual Fundraising Awards

Adult: Peggy Elkind ($7,104)
Teen: Abbie Henshaw ($837)

Top Team Awards

Fundraising: RCC and Friends ($10,574)
Most participants by May 15th: Blessed Sacrament Bullfrogs (45 members)
Spirit: Team SAINTS (for hosting weekly bake sales at school, to raise funds and to register students for the Walk & Family Festival)

Meanwhile, behind us on the track is Herman, our photographer. He was standing on a ten foot ladder so he could capture the extent of the crowd!

The crowd, as seen from atop of the ladder.

A close up of the crowd. You may notice a large robot on the right hand side. This robot was brought to us by a local high school robotics club who participated at the Walk. 

After photos are taken, the Walk begins. Literally people have to walk around Herman on the ladder without knocking him over!!!

Holding the banner from left to right are:

Dr. Aziza Shad (one of Mattie's oncologists, and the doctor we will be supporting at Children's Hospital at Sinai), my Mom, Eugene and Ronee (close family friends), and Peggy (our top fundraiser).

The lady you see waving and pushing a baby carriage, is a mom with a daughter in active treatment. This woman's husband is behind her and the little girl is on his shoulders. We are so happy they could join us!

Friends and family waving! The couple in the front are my cousins Maria and Peter. They came all the way from Michigan to attend the Walk. So this Walk was like a mini family reunion for us. 

Do you see the two ladies... one in a wheelchair and the other using a walker? Well this is my friend Margy and my friend in cancer, Patti. Margy is now courageously dealing with her own cancer battle, this is after she has helped hundreds of children cope with cancer through her role as a play therapist at a local hospital and then as a  cancer foundation leader. Patti is a friend of Margy's and believe it or not, Patti lost both of her children to cancer. So Patti and I see eye to eye, as we are now both childless. This is the second year in a row that Margy has captained Team Kimber. In memory of her friend and colleague, Kimber (who was Patti's daughter), who was a pediatric oncology nurse. 

This track is huge which makes our crowd of 400 people look small!

Pictured in yellow is Leslie. Leslie was Mattie's kindergarten teacher. Next to Leslie is Jaylene. Jaylene is the new head of the lower school, who I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time.

This was participants walking passed our Forever Family posters. This poster series was NEW this year. The point of the series is to illustrate that childhood cancer is a family disease, and the disease impacts families at every stage of the journey from diagnosis, throughout treatment, into survivorship or end of life and bereavement. 

On the posters are photos of families whose child has been diagnosed with cancer. In addition, the poster highlights the five words that each family members gave us to describe the impact of cancer on their lives. In all cases, the five words highlight psychosocial issues and concerns and NOT the medicine. No surprise to Mattie Miracle, as we firmly believe that childhood cancer is NOT JUST ABOUT THE MEDICINE.