Thursday, May 21, 2020

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2004. Mattie was playing outside on our deck with his ride-on fire engine. The irony was Mattie enjoyed playing beside this vehicle or incorporating it into his play schemes, rather than actually riding on it. This vehicle was even washed several times through a Mattie make-shift car wash. The beauty of Mattie was things were never boring and he was also a social person. He could play alone, but he much preferred having me as his side kick. 







Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins. 

• number of people diagnosed with the virus: 1,573,742
• number of people who died from the virus: 94,566

Tonight's Virtual Walk photos highlight some of the wonderful instagram postings done by supporters on May 17th. I think what has caught our attention is people have saved their Mattie Miracle walk t-shirts from previous years and wore them on May 17th. We loved seeing all our different t-shirts on display!

This instagram photo features our nephews in Boston. Again, each one was wearing a different Mattie Miracle shirt!

Our friends in Virginia. We met through Mattie's preschool! 

My friend, Junko's daughter! Bethie loves photography and you can see she has a good eye regarding composition!

This is Carter, our 1st place teen walker. He walked over 50,000 steps on May 17th. His mom posted this photo on instagram! Both of Carter's feet were aching and in a basin of water post-walk. 

This is our friend Kristen. She lives in Maryland. Her whole family was out walking on the May 17th. We met Kristen in 2011, when Peter and I were asked to participate on a palliative care and bereavement panel at a conference in DC. It was Kristen who was moderating the panel. From that brief interaction, I felt very comfortable with Kristen, as I sensed she understood loss and grief and wasn't judgmental or prescriptive as some other psychosocial professionals. In any case, now 9 years later, we are still connected. 

This teen is in California. She found out about our Walk on-line! She not only walked, but clocked in at over 25,000 steps! I love what she wrote in her posting.....

"This morning, I walked 25,063 steps because childhood cancer doesn't pause for a pandemic." 

This is Grant and his family! They have been to all 11 Walks and Grant's company, Ostendio, is a long standing corporate sponsor of our event!

This is a family from Mattie's school. In fact, one of the children in the family is a graduating senior (like Mattie). They walk with us every year and again, notice the different t-shirts. 



A lot of energy was generated from the Virtual Walk. Of course it is hard to determine was there energy around the event because people were trapped at home and were desperate for a positive and healthy distraction? Or does a virtual event provide more flexibility to people and it is more inviting to participants from around the country? 

For the last three years, we always had a virtual walker/team registration option on our walk website. However, the concept never took off. People naturally view our live event as confined to one area. If they weren't in our area, they therefore did not participate. 

Going virtual enables us to expand our base and our presence and frankly if it weren't for the Coronavirus, I am not sure I would have had the courage to change the nature and format of our live Walk & Family Festival. Having to be forced to go virtual this year, has enabled me to think about the Walk differently and expand the possibilities. Mattie Miracle operates on a national level, yet our walks have always been regional. So there are things to think about going forward, and we are grateful that all 50 states participated as well as 8 other countries. That is a Mattie Miracle first!