An "Epic" experience for a Miracle Child

It was an "Epic" morning on the green carpet for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. On May 18, a few staff members got to travel to New York for the premiere of this heroic animated adventure. As you might recall from our last blog post, CMN Hospitals is the official charity partner of the movie. The stars were out bright and early to speak with Kaitlin, our media correspondent and Miracle Child.

Twelve-year-old Kaitlin's not just a natural when it comes to A-list interviews. She has overcome so many health obstacles since day one to be a singing, dancing and entertainment-savvy powerhouse (you can see a bit of her story in this TV interview). She receives treatment for spina bifida at our Network's Children’s Specialized Hospital and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. And she loves the thrill of Manhattan and the lights of Broadway!

 

Kaitlin and her parents, Linda and Gary, discuss interview questions outside the Ziegfield Theater, where the premiere took place.

Kaitlin came rehearsed and ready to talk, and talk she did! Our friends at Rite Aid got to say hello and recap their spring fundraising campaign and partnership with "Epic." And then came the stars: Jason Sudeikis, Aziz Ansari, Chris O'Dowd, Judah Friedlander and Patricia Clarkson all got to talk about their involvement in the movie, and to learn why Kaitlin was spreading the word about the need of local children's hospitals. 

Colin Farrell, who voices Ronin in the movie, didn't pause a second when Kaitlin asked him to wear the Miracle Balloon pin to Celebrate May is for Miracles! And Amanda Seyfried, who voices MK, donned a dress-matching Creating Miracles Bracelet from White House Black Market that matched Kaitlin's!

 

Click here for more photos from the green carpet.

After an hour of "elbow-rubbing," we all headed inside to watch "Epic" in 3D! Since then, we were thrilled to see Kaitlin's interview skills broadcast on FOX stations across the U.S. Check out this one from Kaitlin's hometown station in New Jersey! And remember to catch "Epic" starting this Friday, May 24 at Carmike Cinemas or your favorite theater.

 

Rite Aid is Making an EPIC difference for kids

This is part of a monthly series of "Miracle Memories", personal experiences shared by the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals staff. Rod Hamson, Account Director, speaks to Rite Aid's current partnership with Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and Twentieth Century Fox for campaign of EPIC proportions.

This year’s Rite Aid fundraising campaign is truly making an EPIC difference for sick and injured kids at Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

Since 1994, Rite Aid and their associates have raised money for their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital by selling paper Miracle Balloon icons, hosting health fairs, yard sales, bowling tournaments, and even golf events which engage their vendors.

This year, Rite Aid is partnering with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and Twentieth Century FOX in support of a new animated movie from the creators of Ice Age and Rio. EPIC will be in theaters May 24. All in-store promotional materials have been co-branded with Rite Aid and the movie.

During March and April, I was able to attend a few kick-off events at our hospitals. Being in a children’s hospital is one the best parts of my job. Our program directors dedicate so much time to our corporate partners and their enthusiasm and dedication to their hospital is evident during these kick-off events. I enjoy being with store managers and associates to show them how the funds they raise are being used and introduce them to a family that has benefitted from all the “asks” they make each day to their customers.

The EPIC theme for this year’s campaign has been exciting for the associates. Their customers have enjoyed the connection with the movie and associates who raised $300 during the first few weeks of the campaign are entered for a chance to attend the movie premiere.

I have visited Rite Aid stores this past month and have watched associates interact with customers—many on a first name basis—and ask if they would like to donate to their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital. Without much hesitation, if someone is asked to give, they will support a great cause.

Thank you, Rite Aid!

Photographer raises over $100,000 for kids with annual contest

20 years ago Gayletta Thompkins came across the best idea at a photography conference. She would create a spring “Kiddie Kontest” utilizing children’s portraits from her studio, Gayletta’s Photography, to raise funds for sick and injured children in the community through Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

The contest idea was simple. Ask parents to enter their child’s photo in the contest and ask the public to pay $1 to vote on the winner. The culmination of the contest is at Central Mall in Port Arthur, Texas each April and provides a great day of fun for all involved. Fast forward 20 years and the contest has become a Mid-Jefferson County institution. Parents who were once in the contest now are entering their own children. Over the years new elements have been added, but the contest remains essentially the same. In that time, an incredible $100,000 has been raised to support children from newborns to teens from the entire region and 100% of the proceeds raised locally, stay local.

These funds assist children who have a need for hospital services, many with life threatening and devastating diseases and injuries. Examples of care that local CMN Hospitals provide includes: flying a young girl and her family to Boston and assisting with life-saving surgery costs; supplying state of the art care for tiny babies born too soon; providing X-Box consoles to children in the Pediatric Department to make them feel safe and secure during their hospital stay, and producing a video for children and their families before surgery.

What Gayletta’s story illustrates, is that you don’t have to be big to make a big impact!

CMN Hospitals celebrates Día Del Niño

Several years ago, I joined Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals with the goal of rallying the Hispanic community together to support children’s hospitals. Every day, I am truly amazed at the generosity of not only the Hispanic community, but also the millions of supporters – from all backgrounds – who help our cause. Now, more than ever, I am excited to be a part of this organization.

On April 30 we are going to celebrate a holiday that means so much to me, and to many Hispanic communities across the globe. Similar to Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, Día Del Niño is the day on which we celebrate our children, their wonder and the personal inspirational power they bring to the world. April 15 - 30, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals is honoring Día Del Niño with a text-to-donate campaign to raise money for kids at the Children’s Miracle Network Hospital in your community.

With 62 children entering a Children’s Miracle Network Hospital to receive medical treatment every single minute, I realize that every day, we need to do more to help our children receive the best medical treatment possible.

I hope you will consider joining us by texting a donation and showing your support! Text “KIDS” to 80088 on your mobile phone today. Your text donation of $10 will appear on your next cell phone bill or deducted from a prepaid account. Message and data rates may apply. To learn more about Día Del Niño, or to see the many celebrities that are supporting our cause, visit our website www.diadelnino.org.

Joe Trevino
Vice President, Hispanic Programs

A Touching Torch Relay

This is part of a monthly series of "Miracle Memories", personal experiences shared by the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals staff. Sara Van Winkle, South Region Director, shares her experience attending Torch Relay, a multi-day event that traverses the country each fall via participants walking, running and cycling to raise funds for their children’s hospitals.

One of my most favorite Miracle Memories from 2012 is attending the Torch Relay event when it made a stop in Atlanta. Numerous volunteers worked hours and hours to get the event ready and then, once it was over that afternoon, they began tearing everything down to travel to their next destination and do it all again. I had heard a lot of great things about the event and was thrilled to attend and finally experience the relay first-hand.

As a regional director for CMN Hospitals, I get to work closely with all of the Program Directors in the 21 markets in the South Region. But not often enough do I get to work as close with the families as I’d like. This event provided me with a great opportunity to spend time with one of the Miracle families from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA).

Just before the relay started, Sharon Robinson, Manager, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals for CHOA, was introduced to explain how the funds raised during the relay benefit their patients and also to thank everyone for participating and supporting the event locally.

Parker Grelecki, a former patient and Miracle Child from CHOA, along with his parents, cut the ceremonial ribbon after sharing their miracle story, officially starting the relay. Parker was super excited and performed his duties very well.

The donations collected from the 2012 Torch Relay in Atlanta helped fund the Rehabilitation Services department at CHOA. Specifically, the funds raised help further work in the Prosthetic Fabrication Lab and the Robotics Center at CHOA.

In the Children’s Prosthetics Laboratory, experts custom make artificial limbs to restore a child’s function and appearance. Each prosthesis is designed according to the parents’ and child’s preferences – whether that means natural-looking hands with nails that can be polished or legs decorated with Tinker Bell or Nemo.

The Robotic Center at CHOA provides therapy that helps children with brain and spinal cord injuries, stroke or neurological or orthopedic conditions. By participating in robotic therapy, kids will improve their ability to walk. And the kiddos love the robot, of course!

These are just two departments in one hospital that dollars raised by the Torch Relay have helped fund over the years. It was very touching to witness first-hand how a community could come together for the greater good of its children. The experience left me inspired and I look forward to attending Torch Relay next year. To learn more about the Torch Relay or to register for the next event, visit Torch-Relay.org.

Share Your "Next Step"

If there's anything our supporters know, it's a story of struggle, focus and determination. And that's the exact message our friend, Dave Liniger, shares in his new memoir, My Next Step. Ever since starting the real estate company RE/MAX with his wife Gail in 1973, Dave has instilled a spirit of giving back — including 21 years of support for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. See how Dave rebounded from a life-threatening staph infection that required intensive therapy here.

Have you overcome monumental life obstacles? Just visit this link to share your story and you could win one of 50 signed, limited edition copies of the book. 

Children’s Miracle Network Hospital Founders Award recipient and RE/MAX Chairman, Dave Liniger with his wife, Gail

 

More Funds, Less Hair!

2012 has proven to be our best fundraising year ever! With the help of our hospitals, corporate partners, programs and supporters, we set a new milestone and raised over $300 MILLION DOLLARS! True to his word, our CEO, John Lauck, had his head shaved in honor of this outstanding achievement:

 

Fish Fry and Funds for Kids

This is part of a monthly series of "Miracle Memories", personal experiences shared by the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals staff. Jeff Bronkowski, Director, Corporate Development shares about his recent visit to Kosair Children's Hospital.

Visiting one of our Children's Miracle Network Hospitals is always a great joy, and one of the highlights of my job. It is always reassuring to tour a hospital and see first-hand how the funds we help generate are being used. From the brightly colored lobby, hallways, elevators and treatment rooms that give the kids receiving treatment a feeling that it isn’t such a scary place; to the specialized equipment used to treat incredibly vulnerable newborns in the NICU; to the highly trained nurses, doctors and technicians who work in the pediatric ER. Seeing how my work with corporate partner fundraising directly helps kids and families really inspires me to do more.

Usually I get to visit the hospitals with our partners for a quick tour and a brief meeting with our hospital program directors. These experiences really help motivate the attendees to go back to their stores, sell more Miracle Balloons and raise more money for the kids. Everyone leaves these tours feeling they have come away with something special. Less often do they get the opportunity to bring something special to the hospital, but such was the case with a recent visit to Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville, KY.

Our friends at Long John Silver’s, who are headquartered in Louisville, wanted to showcase their fundraising success in 2012 by presenting a check to Children's Miracle Network Hospitals in the lobby of Kosair. In total, LJS corporate staff, franchisees and customers raised nearly $322,000 in 2012, bringing their fundraising total to more than $4 million since 1995.

To commemorate the first Friday of Lent, Long John Silver’s also treated the patients, family and staff of Kosair to a "Fish Fry" at the hospital. Cooking equipment and tents were erected outside the hospital while volunteers from LJS corporate offices prepared fish, chicken and hush puppies. Additional volunteers shuttled the hot food items through the hospital to common areas on the 3rd and 4th floors, and in the patient family room in the Pediatric Oncology wing of the 8th floor.

This special room was provided by donations from donors and Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, to allow the families of oncology patients an area where they can relax, prepare food, watch a movie or play with young siblings. The room is equipped with a common kitchen, full size refrigerator, microwave and eating utensils. There are also comfortable seating areas where families can read a book, watch a movie or catch a few minutes of needed rest. Siblings are treated to play areas, small tables and chairs for coloring or game playing, and of course, a video game system. In the back is a separate resource library, where families can research illnesses and treatments, check emails or update the patient care blogs. These seemingly small gestures of convenience make a world of difference to families in need.

Witnessing the hardworking hospital staff and the good people at Long John Silver’s come together for the benefit of a community was truly an amazing experience that I will never forget.

Miracle Child Receives Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal

Miracle Child, Tobin Haas received the Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of his hard work as an advocate of childhood cancer awareness. The Diamond Jubilee Medal is a commemorative medal that honors significant contributions and achievements by Canadians.



“It was exciting and an honor to be one of 60,000 Canadians to receive the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal”, says Tobin, “I was nominated for the medal because I speak about Children's Miracle Network at various events and share about the importance of donating”.

Tobin was first diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor at the age of two-and-a-half years old and received treatment at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Ontario. Currently at thirteen years old, Tobin is in good health and looks forward to golfing as soon as the hockey season ends. Learn about Tobin’s remarkable journey here.

Breakfast enthusiasts prepare, National Pancake Day is here

As the icicles begin to melt and temperatures start their slow ascent upwards, free pancakes is a February staple we can all look forward to. A short stack of fresh-off-the-griddle, fluffy flapjacks are sure to warm your core and your heart when you donate to your local member hospital. Thankfully, IHOPs nationwide are helping bridge the yuminess and do goody-ness, as today's National Pancake Day!

Your in-store donation helps kids like Adham, who was diagnosed with pilocytic astroctytoma, a low-grade brain tumor that has left him blind in his right eye. Adham has a zest for life and cooking that your funds will help him continue.

 

We hope you'll gather your loved ones and stop by your neighborhood IHOP today. For breakfast, lunch or dinner, these pancakes hold some true life-saving power for kids in your community!