Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Tuesday, March 16, 2021 -- Mattie died 598 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2009. Mattie was in the child life playroom with Peter. I unfortunately missed that moment in time. Mattie was surrounded by his nurse and a few other hospital staff. They were having a yoga contest. It turns out that Mattie was quite good at replicating poses that he saw on the TV. Which was ironic when you consider that both arms and one leg had prosthetic bones inside of them. Mattie could no longer walk independently and do many typical activities of daily living like dressing and bathing. Yet he had balance and strength enough to take on this challenge! Truly amazing.

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

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 29,544,991
• Number of people who died from the virus: 536,808

It is hard to believe that other than walking Sunny, I have been working on designing the Foundation's Walk website ALL day. I didn't just start today. I have been at it for a month. The company we use that provides event software, changed their platform this year. So what should have been an easy re-creation of the website, turned into a massive learning endeavor. From branding the site, figuring out how to get our Foundation colors on the site, to developing content and visuals. The trend now with events is that the landing page describes the Foundation and its history. From there the viewer can navigate to our actual walk site with registration. This is the first visual participants will see this year. 

 

This is the registration page. Again, another steep learning curve on how to design this as well as figure out registration options for participants. As the old system was very different from the new system. So how I had individual walkers versus teams register in the past, doesn't work with the new system. 

If all of this wasn't bad enough, the system requires that I develop a separate raffle website. Which I never had to do before. In the past, the walk and raffle were featured on a consolidated site. So though I am not wild about separating them apart, I have to evolve with the technology.

So much about Mattie Miracle forces me beyond my comfort zone to figure things out! If I want things done, I have to do it. There is no one in the wings going to do this for me. But what running the Foundation has shown me is when focused and determined, a lot can get accomplished.