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

April 28, 2018

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2008. Only three months before Mattie was diagnosed with cancer. That day, Mattie came home from school, and given that the weather was lovely, he wanted to fly his kite. Ironically in a certain part of our commons area, there is always a breeze, which makes kite flying very possible!

Quote of the day: Teamwork is the secret that makes common people achieve uncommon results. ~ Ifeanyi Onuoha



I have been fighting my own private battle in DC regarding graffiti and encampments. Both of which have become OUT OF CONTROL over the last decade. Can you see this big MTG sprayed on the wall in front of the State Department? No one seems bothered by any of this except me! To me both graffiti and encampments say volumes about the health of our city and society in general.

I have been looking at this nightmare all throughout winter. My photo doesn't do justice to how horribly ugly it is! Today, we walked passed this area with Sunny and I am happy to report it is GONE. We are back to having a clean wall, but I know it won't last long!

Meanwhile, right near us we have had a man camping out on a major street of the city. Again this photo does not do it justice, as he literally took up an entire block with his clothes, materials, newspapers, bedding and the list went on. I have been complaining about him and our tent city down the block since March. 

So this was the BEFORE photo.....

This is AFTER! Today was the FIRST day in which our side walk dweller was removed. Along with his belongings, camp material, clothing, and trash. Do you see how big this portion of the sidewalk is? Well picture it taken over by an encampment!

The Mayor's office mentioned to me the outreach they are doing to help the homeless. My response was it isn't helping and having people live in our public spaces is not effectively assisting them in having a better and more productive quality of life. 


Before starting Foundation Walk tasks for the day, we walked Sunny down to the Washington Mall. Sunny loves the Mall, mainly because the Mall is filled with trees and squirrels. It was a glorious day today, which required us to bring water in tow for Sunny. We snapped a photo of him during a water break. 
Sunny through the tulips!!!
Meanwhile back in our home..... it is beginning to have that warehouse look again that makes me edgy! Many of our bins for the Walk are out of storage and sitting in our living and dining rooms. Mattie's room is our staging area for the raffle. Peter and I worked on wrapping raffle items today. We have 9 out of the 10 done!
My floors are covered in something Walk related!














I am still awaiting one item in the mail, before I can wrap the tenth raffle basket. Once that is done, then we will do our staging of the baskets, in order to capture a quality photograph. 

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