Tonight's picture was taken in February of 2009. This conga line was a typical occurrence for Mattie's physical therapy sessions. Mattie's physical therapist understood that the more people involved, the more likely Mattie would sign on to participate. Behind Mattie were Jenny (art therapist), Denise (social worker), Jessie (art therapist) and a physical therapy intern. Boy did the intern get a lesson in creativity that day, as Mattie required his team to always think OUTSIDE the box.
Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.
- Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 27,160,308
- Number of people who died from the virus: 466,991
During the COVID pandemic, Mark is using his creative skills to spread awareness and developed a pod cast called "Help and Hope Happen Here." To date Mark has interviewed over 36 individuals and organizations while highlighting the disease and the many ways our community serves children with cancer.
Mark reached out to us from Boston, as he heard about Mattie Miracle and our unique psychosocial mission. What impressed Peter and I about Mark is that he does extensive research on whomever he is interviewing. Literally Mark read through our website and truly integrated the thoughts and feelings expressed in my writings. When someone knows and appreciates your work, it is much easier to have a more in-depth and meaningful dialogue. When the podcast goes live, I will post it.
But some reflections on today's experience were:
- Peter and I have a very different ways of communicating. I am about setting context and telling stories to illustrate who and what we are about and Peter excels at highlighting research, our activities and accomplishments. In reality both forms of communication are necessary and it could be why the Foundation has been sustainable, as we have different but complimentary skill sets. Peter says we are like "yin and yang, left brain, right brain."
- It is remarkable to hear about what we do from a FRESH lens. Mark felt what we have accomplished with not a large budget and NO staff is noteworthy. Certainly that could be a platitude to hear, but it wasn't from Mark, because he literally cited all that we have and are doing. So it was feedback with data.
- It dawned on me that this year we could reach the $1 million dollar mark of raising funds for children with cancer. Which is quite an achievement especially when you consider that I am not a professional fundraiser.
- It is remarkable what we have accomplished, given that the majority of the advocacy world is focused on biomedical care. I know when we originally set out to create standards of care, people thought..... sure, not going to happen. It happened and we are committed for these standards to be operational!
- Mark asked an interesting question today! He wanted to know what we learned from the publication of the standards? Certainly the answer could be many, many things! But Peter summarized it well! Once the Standards were published, treatment sites realized that there was room for improvement in the quality of psychosocial care offered to children with cancer and their parents. What I also learned from the publication of the Standards is that the majority of hospitals in the USA DO NOT have psychologists and psychiatrists on staff to support children with cancer. Not sure everyone knows this reality.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/help-and-hope-happen-here/id1523556392
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