Year 33
Last year, with the support of family & friends we were successfully able to raise $1, 071.50 toward the Children's Hunger Fund to support children around the world living hungry and in poverty. Together we were able to provide meals for 4,286 children!
This year, we were faced with a global pandemic. 2020 instantly became a year with so much need. So much unexpected need. I knew months before the year even began, what charity I hoped to sponsor this year. As the year slowly progressed, and we saw small shops suffer and family restaurants close down there was no industry untouched, all at one point or another affected by the direct and ripple effects of COVID.
As most of you know I work in healthcare, in fact, I've been at Nicklaus Children's Hospital for almost 11 years. A volunteer opportunity, turned passion, turned job, and hopefully home of my lifelong career. Yet this year- we, too, felt so much unexpected need.
A need to activate a 7+ month long-incident command team.
A need to develop organizational guiding principles to make difficult decisions.
A need for executive administration, director, manager and physician pay cuts.
A need to furlough staff.
A need to feed our staff.
A need to partner with the competition.
A need to pause non life-threatening surgeries and procedures.
A need to find life saving equipment and PPE.
A need to ask for more help than ever before.
A need to reassess what patients and families truly need.
A need to force creativity.
A need to change the tires while the bus is still moving.
A need to redesign & fail fast.
A need to rip off band-aids.
While most of these needs are not unique to any one industry, this was it. This was the non-profit I knew I needed to support this year. Why give elsewhere, when my own home needed just as much as the rest. Over the past few months, the areas of greatest need changed frequently. Some weeks we needed masks, others we needed to motivate staff, and others just financial support.
Throughout these drawn out months, my work focus has been to find ways to adapt experiential programming and help patients & families continue to feel comfortable in the hospital during this time. With limited visitors and paused volunteers programming, our previous patient experience plan was no longer a possibility, let alone an option. So we adapted. We designed a model where recreation and patient engagement could occur virtually through TVs at the bedside. At first, book readings and recorded songs & eventually leading to virtual events at the bedside complete with video tutorials & recreational kits dropped off shortly before being broadcast. As you can imagine, these are quite labor intensive kits to create and costly to purchase. With the help of our hospital foundation, we hoped to find the financial support to make it possible. Researched a few vendors & one day in passing, my brother introduced me to Kiwi Co. Look them up, if you're not familiar. I instantly fell in love with the company, it was exactly what we needed!
Fast forwarding to this week, our hospital foundation finally posted our week-long Flash Fundraiser to help gather funds for these AMAZING bedside activities. This was a project we began working on a few months back which coincidentally launched the week of my birthday. Our hospital goal- to raise $3,000 this week. My personal goal- to support my own daily work this year. Flash Fundraiser Bedside Kits
Again, on Year 33, I ask that you consider making a small contribution not only to this non-profit charity, but also my daily work, in lieu of a gift this year.
If possible, please make contribution of any size to the GoFund Me page or in person. Crown Castle will be matching our efforts by doubling the total contribution!
Last year, with the support of family & friends we were successfully able to raise $1, 071.50 toward the Children's Hunger Fund to support children around the world living hungry and in poverty. Together we were able to provide meals for 4,286 children!
This year, we were faced with a global pandemic. 2020 instantly became a year with so much need. So much unexpected need. I knew months before the year even began, what charity I hoped to sponsor this year. As the year slowly progressed, and we saw small shops suffer and family restaurants close down there was no industry untouched, all at one point or another affected by the direct and ripple effects of COVID.
As most of you know I work in healthcare, in fact, I've been at Nicklaus Children's Hospital for almost 11 years. A volunteer opportunity, turned passion, turned job, and hopefully home of my lifelong career. Yet this year- we, too, felt so much unexpected need.
A need to activate a 7+ month long-incident command team.
A need to develop organizational guiding principles to make difficult decisions.
A need for executive administration, director, manager and physician pay cuts.
A need to furlough staff.
A need to feed our staff.
A need to partner with the competition.
A need to pause non life-threatening surgeries and procedures.
A need to find life saving equipment and PPE.
A need to ask for more help than ever before.
A need to reassess what patients and families truly need.
A need to force creativity.
A need to change the tires while the bus is still moving.
A need to redesign & fail fast.
A need to rip off band-aids.
While most of these needs are not unique to any one industry, this was it. This was the non-profit I knew I needed to support this year. Why give elsewhere, when my own home needed just as much as the rest. Over the past few months, the areas of greatest need changed frequently. Some weeks we needed masks, others we needed to motivate staff, and others just financial support.
Throughout these drawn out months, my work focus has been to find ways to adapt experiential programming and help patients & families continue to feel comfortable in the hospital during this time. With limited visitors and paused volunteers programming, our previous patient experience plan was no longer a possibility, let alone an option. So we adapted. We designed a model where recreation and patient engagement could occur virtually through TVs at the bedside. At first, book readings and recorded songs & eventually leading to virtual events at the bedside complete with video tutorials & recreational kits dropped off shortly before being broadcast. As you can imagine, these are quite labor intensive kits to create and costly to purchase. With the help of our hospital foundation, we hoped to find the financial support to make it possible. Researched a few vendors & one day in passing, my brother introduced me to Kiwi Co. Look them up, if you're not familiar. I instantly fell in love with the company, it was exactly what we needed!
Fast forwarding to this week, our hospital foundation finally posted our week-long Flash Fundraiser to help gather funds for these AMAZING bedside activities. This was a project we began working on a few months back which coincidentally launched the week of my birthday. Our hospital goal- to raise $3,000 this week. My personal goal- to support my own daily work this year. Flash Fundraiser Bedside Kits
Again, on Year 33, I ask that you consider making a small contribution not only to this non-profit charity, but also my daily work, in lieu of a gift this year.
If possible, please make contribution of any size to the GoFund Me page or in person. Crown Castle will be matching our efforts by doubling the total contribution!