As we all have been blessed with the good health and the comforts of home for the holidays please take three minutes out to watch this video on my friend Eli.I’ve had the amazing opportunity over the last year to work with Candlelighters NYC. We are a very small organization that supplies resources to kids with cancer being treated in New York. We are also a resource to help their parents, too. Most of the kids are treated at NYC’s Sloan Kettering Hospital and the families stay at the Ronald McDonald House.
In short, these families come from all over and it’s not just for a visit or two. Many of the families have been coming in for years. Some live for weeks, or in the case of Eli months, at the hospital or at the Ronald House. They often are living from lab test to lab test and have to schedule last minute flights into NYC. The cost of flights, NYC food, parking, etc., has been daunting to be exposed to.
On a positive note - I have been fascinated by how technology has helped with visits. iPod Touches, 3DS, Crayola Color Explosion Kits, Wiis, have been huge especially for the little boys sitting in a bed all day. (Doctors sometimes walked in amaze and I am dumbfounded by the turnaround -- its like, they are kids it's not rocket science!) It definitely appears the tech briefly takes their mind off medical problems, and also in some instances (iPod touch, iPad), have given them ways to communicate with other family members that cannot be there.
Walking into a hospital room and seeing a child hooked up to wires (and enduring some painful procedures) and having a doctor come in every 20 minutes – I don’t know how these kids and parents do it. I wish everyone could be exposed to what these families are going through; sacrificing financially and emotionally to do everything in their l power to help their child get well.
My big hope for 2012 is to find sponsors for Candlelighters. There are very few resources that are able to be supplied and often times we take it upon ourselves especially when it comes to getting toys and gifts for the kids.
If you know of any company that can help with a write off – please let me know or pass along this article.
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| With Cole who loves Legos! |
God bless you and the other Candlelighters. I know the Horn family truly appreciates all that you do. You are angels among us!
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