Thursday, April 2, 2020

Thursday, April 2, 2020

Tonight's picture was taken on April 4, 2002. The day Mattie was born. It is hard to believe that on Saturday, Mattie would have been turning 18 years old. To me he will always be 7. 

Mattie was born at 12:36am, and I was the first person to touch Mattie, despite the fact that my arms were strapped down to an operating table for a C-section. While I remained in the operating room, Peter followed Mattie to the nursery and captured some wonderful photos, like this one. Showing Mattie's alertness from day one. 


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

• number of people diagnosed with the virus: 238,820
• number of people who died from the virus: 5,758

Given the challenging times we are living with, we have been thinking creatively about our upcoming virtual walk on May 17th. Children with cancer and their families face the unimaginable everyday, yet with the coronavirus added to the mix, additional stresses are placed upon children with cancer and their families. Families are facing job loss (and potentially no insurance), families separated and unable to visit their child with cancer because of fear of introducing the virus, isolation from friends and family, and of course postponed treatments and surgeries due to the national healthcare crisis. Due to all of these psychosocial stresses, Mattie Miracle decided to do two things to help!

First we reached out to Children's Hospital at Sinai in Baltimore, MD to request a list of items they wanted to help reduce the isolation children feel in the hospital. As hospitals have the policy that children with cancer are allowed ONLY one person staying in the room with them. Meaning that the other parent, siblings, family members and friends are unable to visit. So we purchased $2,000 worth of items to assist with isolation and enable communication, and we are proud to say that the following items are on the way to the hospital:

Standzout Medmount Mobile Secure Tablet Mount

Lovebox Spinning Heart Messenger

Long Distance Friendship Lamp

The second thing we did today, was we created the Mattie Miracle Coronavirus Family Relief Grants. We will be donating $10,000 to the  Children's Hospital at Sinai to support children with cancer and their families during this healthcare and financial crisis. 

As a result of establishing this grant program, we have decided to dedicate 10% of the funds we raise from our May 17th Virtual Walk to this cause. Please check out our walk website and consider making a donation to support our psychosocial programs and the Coronavirus Relief Fund: www.mmcfwalk.com