Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Tuesday, June 12, 2012 -- Mattie died 144 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2007 at Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA. As you can see, Mattie and Peter went down this enormous slide together sitting on some sort of sack. The irony of this picture was for the first three years of Mattie's life, he was very scared of slides. He did not like the feeling, motion, or the sensation. However, between the help of his occupational therapist, Peter, myself, and his preschool, Mattie overcame this fear. So much so, that by age five, only two years later, he sought out all sorts of rides, slides, and adventures.



Quote of the day: Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you; they're supposed to help you discover who you are. ~ Bernice Johnson Reagon

I have begun sifting through all the electronic pictures taken at this year's Foundation Walk. This took me hours to organize, label, and electronically file them. Over the next couple of days, I will highlight some of the Walk events and it is my hope that you can sense the energy and community spirit captured within these photographs. Peter and I want to thank Photozee (http://www.photozee.com/), who provided the Foundation with two wonderful photographers probono to cover all four hours of our event!  

There were many kid friendly activities at the Walk. One of the activity tents housed John, our resident balloon hat, animal, and sword artist. Here you can see my friend Mary's daughter, Abby, with a balloon hat designed just for her!

Mattie's good buddy, Charlotte, was at the Walk and went to visit the kid/teen vendor tables. At the table, you can see that she purchased an orange Bow for Hope. As my readers know, Bows for Hope is a non-profit created and run by Lauren, a 14 year old osteosarcoma survivor. Lauren's mission is to raise money for Mattie Miracle! Lauren sent me 100 bows to sell at the Walk, and it is safe to say that Lauren's bows are VERY popular and sell quick!

This was not an unusual sight at the Walk. Children with friends walking around, taking in the sights and participating in all the activities. Each of these girls is walking with our  Foundation's drawstring bag and some sort of balloon art!

I love this photo!!! I entitle it.... the sword fight! These two boys are the sons of Dave Holm. Dave is an instrumental member of Team Mattie, the former head football coach of St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School, and a vital Walk volunteer. Dave brought his entire family to the Walk, in fact, one of his daughters was a kid vendor and sold her hand made duct tape purses. Wait until you see what these purses looked like, then you will understand why they sold out immediately!

Mattie's good buddy, Jocelyn, an osteosarcoma survivor, attended the walk with her niece. Both were meeting John, who was working on a ballooned creature for them. 

Under this blue tent was housed a fun kid activity hosted by the Childlife department at Georgetown University Hospital and the HEM/ONC pediatric nurses. Sitting down on the far right is Brandon, Mattie's big buddy, and a lymphoma cancer survivor. In addition, you may notice a young girl, Amanda, who is wearing a prosthetic leg. This is Amanda's second year attending our Walk and she is an amazing Ewing's sarcoma survivor. Wait until you see some of the pictures I will be posting of her later in the week. There is NOTHING Amanda can't do!

Katie, is one of the Childlife Specialists at Georgetown, and Katie devoted her whole day under the tent, helping children make colorful buttons. Mattie LOVED Linda's button machine, and though others in attendance may not know this connection, Linda picked this activity in honor of Mattie. At the Hospital, Mattie made a ton of buttons. More than I could keep track of!

In addition, to the fun button making activity, there was also a great deal of substance at this table. Anita, the nurse manager of the pediatric HEM/ONC nurses at Georgetown was behind the table and answered questions from the children about the x-rays hanging from the tent or whatever other medically related questions they had. In addition, Linda generated a beautiful handout which was available at the table that highlighted Childlife, what her program accomplishes in a year, and how Mattie Miracle's contributions are helping children, families, and the Hospital.

In this picture, you can see Mattie's kindergarten classmate, Tim, using a stethoscope on a friend. The Childlife/Nurses table was filled with all sorts of interesting things this year, which is why the kids inundated the table.