RECENT NEWS
Read What We've Been Up To Lately
Importance of Community Partnerships
February 2, 2021
Mattie Miracle is grateful for Kearney & Company's generosity and support since 2015. Every Fall, Kearney & Company hosts a poker tournament to benefit Mattie Miracle. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the the poker tournament was converted into a virtual trivia night. On December 17, 2020, the co-founders of the Foundation were invited to the virtual trivia night to give a greeting and to thank our long time sponsor for their annual support.
Virtually we had the opportunity to meet Brian Kearney, the COO of the company, and over 100 participants at the event. Brian shared the exciting news that Kearney & Company is contributing $10,000 to the Foundation to support our amazing work. In addition, Kearney & Company wanted us to know that they are committed to the cause for the long-term. Mattie Miracle is proud to partner with a company that has such a big heart and is committed to making a difference in the lives of children with cancer and their families.
It was a very moving experience for Mattie Miracle as we received numerous chat messages that evening from participants, such as:
-
Thanks for all that you do!
-
Honored to be remembering Mattie tonight.
-
What an incredible way to change the world.
-
Thank you for being a positive force!
-
You are superheroes.
Kearney & Company makes the Mattie Miracles possible. We realize community service is a vital part of Kearney & Company's culture and we are thankful they have chosen to partner with Mattie Miracle.
Committed to Direct Support
December 2020
The Foundation donated $46,000 to Children's Hospital at Sinai (Baltimore, MD) to support our endowed Mattie Miracle Child Life Program Fund. This is our second endowed Fund that we have established, as the first was created in 2011, at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital (Washington, DC). To date, we have contributed over $300,000 to these Funds to directly support children with cancer and their families.
The Mattie Miracle Child Life Program Fund pays the salary of Adina Levitan, a child life professional at Children’s Hospital at Sinai. Adina works one on one with 200 patients and families a year and through the Mattie Miracle Snack & Item Cart, provides snacks, treats and toiletries annually to 1,500 families caring for children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
Child life specialists are pediatric health care professionals who work with children and families in hospitals to help them cope with the challenges of hospitalization, illness, and disability. They provide children with age-appropriate preparation for medical procedures, pain management, coping strategies, and play and self-expression activities. In addition, these professionals provide information, support, and guidance to parents, siblings, and other family members.
Child life services are associated with improved quality, outcomes, and patient and family experiences as well as decrease costs in pediatric care. There is evidence that child life services help to contain costs by reducing the length of stay, decreasing the need for sedation and analgesics, and increasing patient satisfaction ratings. Patient experience data and interdisciplinary team member feedback further confirm the positive effects of child life programs on children, families, and staff.
Champagne & Oysters 10th Anniversary Celebration - raised $33,000
November 7, 2019
In honor of Mattie Miracle's decade of service, Friends of the Foundation hosted a Champagne and Oysters Celebration, at a beautiful home in Alexandria, VA. This was the first fundraising event that was planned for Mattie Miracle, without Foundation involvement. There were 80 attendees and the event was a wonderful way for sustaining and new supporters to learn more about Mattie Miracle's mission, achievements, and psychosocial vision of care.
Greetings were given by:
Victoria Sardi-Brown, Co-Founder & President
Dr. Aziza Shad, Chief of Pediatrics at Children's Hospital at Sinai
Adina Levitan, Mattie Miracle Child Life Specialist
Dr. Lori Wiener, Director of Psychosocial Support & Research Program, NIH
Peter Brown, Co-Founder & CEO
Ann Henshaw, Board Member
Brett Thompson, Board Member
Click Here to read the greeting delivered by Mattie Miracle's Co-Founder & President.
Special Thanks to:
Debbie and Peter Keefe
Candy Drive yields 9 tons!
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.
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.
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.
There were 18 Recipients of Mattie Miracle Candy this year:
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
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
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
10th Anniversary Walk & Family Festival raised over $119,000
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!
Direct Psychosocial Support (April-June 2019)
Spring 2019
Adina Levitan is the Mattie Miracle Child Life Professional at Children's Hospital at Sinai (Baltimore, MD). We are proud to support Adina's position as she enhances treatment outcomes and the quality of life for children with cancer and their families on a daily basis. We welcome you to view our recent three month overview which highlights our funded child and family focused interventions.
Mattie Miracle's 1st Early Investigator Award
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.
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).