Friday, June 16, 2023Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2003. Mattie was a year old. By this point, we needed to have a big play pen in our living room, because there were times I needed a minute to do something, and I did not want to worry about Mattie hurting himself. Here's the ironic part! Look who was in the play pen with Mattie? Though it was a space for Mattie, Peter and I landed up in it, playing and entertaining Mattie. When I look at this photo now, it makes me laugh. Not sure I was laughing back then, as Mattie was a fellow who wanted us to engage and be with him every minute of the waking day. Maybe he knew something that we didn't, that we would only have 7 years together. Either case, we both devoted our time and attention to Mattie, and we have no regrets about this decision.
Quote of the day: Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
Mattie Miracle started a grant program in 2022. The grants award families up to $1,000 for a fun activity, wish list item, or family trip. We started this program in memory of our board member, Margy, who died from her own cancer battle. For twenty years, Margy ran her own childhood cancer non-profit, and granted countless mini-wishes to children in the Northern Virginia area. When Margy died, I suggested to her family that we keep Margy's legacy work alive, and created the M&M (Margy and Mattie) Wishes Program.
To date, we have awarded 12 wishes. The beauty of our Wishes program is if a request needs to be addressed quickly, we do not have a lot of red tape, and can turn around support within days. In addition, unlike other grant programs, we do not have requirements regarding disease trajectory and age. Meaning we will grant wishes to children who are receiving end of life care as well as young adults receiving cancer care, as long as the diagnosis is considered pediatric in origin.
For the most part our grant program has been plugging away and slowly but surely social workers around the country are finding out about our support. I specifically chose not to put our grant application on-line, but instead to require families and social workers to email me first. Based on that electronic conversation, I can determine whether the match and fit makes sense in order to move forward with the completion of a grant application.
In any case, in the last two weeks, I received a request from out of state. However, unlike what typically happens, this mom seemed to have access to our grant application without emailing me first. I naturally read her email and the grant application. But you know when something seems off? Not right? Well throughout the process with this applicant, I have been questioning how legitimate a request this was? I asked the mom to be connected to the child's social worker and unfortunately that connection brought up more questions and red flags.
Fortunate for me, I know a social worker who works at the institution the child is supposedly seeking treatment. So I wrote to my contact. She was kind enough to look up the child's name, the social worker's name, as well as the physician's name supplied to me on the application! NONE of them are within the hospital's record system. Interesting no?
I run a non-profit to help others and truly I try to be as generous as possible with each person seeking support. However, I am glad that I followed my gut instinct and asked more questions about this application. It saddens me that anyone would take advantage of a non-profit, especially one which helps children with cancer, but this week was my first taste of dealing with a fraudulent request and this further confirms that the safeguards I have put in place regarding the application process serve a vital purpose.
