November 15, 2019

Mattie Miracle's 9th Annual Post Halloween Candy Drive was a huge success.  We are deeply grateful to all of our candy contributors who are comprised of individuals, 38 schools, and 47 community groups and businesses.  

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This year, 18,000 pounds of candy was donated to Mattie Miracle.  Thanks to our volunteers, this candy was inspected, sorted by type into Ziploc bags to preserve the candy for our recipients, and delivered throughout Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia.  The candy is intended to provide a sweet treat to family members caring for children with cancer.  Specifically, a good portion of this candy is used to stock our two Mattie Miracle Snack and Item Carts.  One Cart is located at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC and the second Cart is at Children's Hospital at Sinai in Baltimore, MD.  

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This Drive provides a year's worth of candy for our Carts.  The Carts are pushed three times a week in the in-patient units of the Hospitals and offer free candy, nutritional snacks, drinks, and toiletry items to families.  Families are deeply appreciative to receive these basic items because it is very difficult to leave their children's bedside to try to meet their daily needs.  

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There were 18 Recipients of Mattie Miracle Candy this year:

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Washington, DC
1.    MedStar Georgetown University Hospital 
2.    Ronald McDonald House
3.    HSC Pediatric Center 
4.    Children's National Medical Center
5.    Covenant House

6.    Sasha Bruce

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Maryland
1.    Children’s Hospital at Sinai, Baltimore
2.    Hackerman Patz House, Baltimore 
3.    Ronald McDonald House, Baltimore 
4.    Children's Inn at NIH, Bethesda 
5.    Nourish Now, Rockville

6.   St. Ann's Center for Children, Youth, and Family, Hyattsville

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Northern Virginia
1.    Ronald McDonald House, Falls Church  
2.    Special Love for Children with Cancer, Winchester
3.    Pediatric Specialists of Northern Virginia (PSV), Falls Church
4.    Embry Rucker Community Shelter, Reston
5.    Cornerstones, Reston
6.    United Community Ministries, Alexandria

May 19, 2019

The 10th Anniversary Walk & Family Festival was a grand celebration! We had over 400 people attend, 38 sponsors, 300 individual donors and had a beautiful weather day.  The funds raised from the event allow us to (1) Endow a Psychosocial Research Program, (2) Funding Child Life Specialist Positions, (3) Support multiple In-Patient Snack Carts, and (4) Operationalize Psychosocial Standards of Care Nationwide.   We thank all of our supporters for their decade of commitment, loyalty, and generosity.  Please watch the video for an idea of how the event went!

February 28, 2019

At the 16th Annual American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS) conference in Atlanta, GA, Mattie Miracle awarded Dr. Kimberly Canter (Nemours Center for Healthcare Delivery Science in Wilmington, Delaware) with our first Early Investigator Award.  The Foundation has partnered with APOS to create implementation grants.  Grants to produce clinical tools and models that will enable the implementation of the Psychosocial Standards of Care at treatment sites around the country.  

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The $10,000 Mattie Miracle Early Investigator Award is a distinguished honor that was granted to Dr. Kimberly Canter.  Dr. Canter's research proposal was selected from an impressive group of 12 proposals by a scientific review committee.  Dr. Canter's study is entitled, Community Implementation of a Psychosocial eHealth Intervention for Parents of Children with Cancer.  eSCCIP (the Electronic Surviving Cancer Competently Intervention Program) is a brief, cognitive behavioral and family systems eHealth intervention for parents and caregivers of children with cancer.  This funded study will be a community-centered pilot test of eSCCIP, in partnership with Life with Cancer in Northern VA, and will focus on evaluating intervention feasibility and acceptability, as well as key psychosocial outcomes (posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and family functioning).

March 1, 2019

Mattie Miracle funded a research Symposium entitled, Pediatric Psychosocial Standards of Care: A Review and Discussion of In-Progress Research Projects on Implementation of the Standards at the 16th annual American Psychosocial Oncology Society Conference in Atlanta, GA. 

In 2015, the Psychosocial Standards of Care Project for Childhood Cancer (PSCPCC)—a large interdisciplinary group of expert stakeholders, published 15 evidence-based standards for pediatric psychosocial care.  The Standards provide a blueprint on what evidence-based care should consist of at treatment sites. 

This year, Mattie Miracle partnered with APOS to provide funding to help support researchers who design high quality studies that aim to help implement any of the 15 pediatric Standards.  The Symposium, highlighted Mattie Miracle's funded research projects addressing novel interventions for caregivers, adherence, integration of palliative care, sibling support, school re-entry, and parental bereavement.

March 12, 2019

We are very thankful for having such an outstanding group of core volunteers, many of whom have been working with us since the Foundation's inception in 2009.  The majority of this core group knew Mattie Brown and they work diligently with us to keep his memory alive. 

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The Foundation is able to host a successful Walk & Family Festival annually, thanks to this group's generosity of time, energy, and skills.  Which is why Mattie Miracle's co-founders hosted an appreciation dinner in honor of our amazing volunteers.  Together we celebrated Mattie Miracle's 10th anniversary and all that we achieved in our first decade.