Thursday, May 24, 2018

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Tonight's picture is a classic!! It was taken in June of 2009. Mattie was in the hospital recovering from his sternotomy (a surgery performed to remove tumors in the lungs). Pictured with him were Sarah Marshall and Ellen. That day, Sarah Marshall was Mattie's day time oncology nurse and Ellen, was his night nurse. As you can see they were giving Mattie kisses. In all reality Mattie was so ill, frail, and had undergone so many surgeries that it wasn't surprising someone wanted to kiss him and make it better. Sarah Marshall was our nurse the night Mattie was dying. The hospital assigned her NO other patients but Mattie, and I can assure you she did not have a minute's peace as there wasn't enough pain meds she could pump into Mattie's small body. Our room looked like a war zone, and Sarah Marshall was alongside us the whole time. Mattie's death was a painful five years. After Mattie died, Sarah Marshall switched from an oncology nurse to a pediatric intensive care nurse. I am quite certain that this decision was influenced by Mattie's death. 

Quote of the day: What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us. ~ Helen Keller

Tonight's photos feature the 5,000 colorful cups we had at the Walk. This rainbow cup display is set up by the track. So when walkers pass it, they can grab their team's colored cup from a volunteer. 

Two of our dedicated volunteers, who have been with us from the beginning. Tina and Tanja were distributing cups on the track to walkers.

Walkers then walk their cups over to the chain link fence, which is our challenge wall. The challenge is for teams to work together to fill this fence. Walkers hand their cups over to another set of volunteers behind the fence who stick the cups through the fence and then count cup colors. 

A photo of the challenge wall being filled!

This year we had a girl scout troop and their leaders helping us with cup counting. This enables teams to know how many laps they have walked. In essence it is a colorful score board. 

The big orange letters spell out CHALLENGE WALL. 

This is our actual score board. As volunteers count cups, they update the board. This is the fourth year in a row that the Blessed Sacrament Bullfrogs team won the cup challenge. They were the first team to place 240 cups in the wall, or in other words collectively the team walked 60 miles!

 Walkers grabbing cups!

The first lap is always the hardest, until walkers get the hang of what color cup they are and where to pick up their cup and drop it off at the challenge wall. However, our walkers are fast learners and you can see the walk itself produces smiles and fun.