An Inspired Effort, Indeed

Photo credit: North Kitsap Herald's Kitsap Week

Richard Walker of Kitsap Newspaper Group has written a sensitive, beautiful article about Katie and Hannah Hunt (the daughter of our friends, Reba and Bill), and the effort they have inspired around cancer research. Our families are linked in friendship because of our daughters' shared experiences - though the girls never met in the flesh. Both of them have inspired our families, friends, and community to come together and support research to find a cure for cancer.
To read the article, please go to this link at Kitsap Week.

We are coming together again next Friday at 7:00 P.M. at Grace Church on Bainbridge Island for Hannah's Hopeful Hearts 2015, an evening of fun, fine food and drink, live music by St. Paul de Vence and presentations by two of the brilliant cancer researchers who are changing the way cancer is treated - for the better: better treatment and better outcomes. Please join us by going to hannahshopefulhearts.brownpapertickets.com and securing your tickets! All proceeds from ticket sales go directly to cancer research, thanks to the generosity of our presenting sponsor, Windermere Real Estate of Bainbridge Island.

All funds raised at the event go directly to cancer research!

Hannah's Hopeful Hearts

I just received this message from our friends, Reba & Bill:

     On March 19th, 2010, the Bainbridge community came together at Grace Church for the Hannah's Hopeful Hearts "Climbing Mountains for A Cure for Brain Tumors" fundraiser.  The event was an enormous success both in terms of the love that was poured out for Hannah and our family and for the funds raised for brain tumor research.  The funds were critical for the development of Tumor Paint in Dr. Jim Olson’s lab.  We are delighted to share that the US FDA just gave the green light to begin brain tumor trials in the US with BLZ-100, the first tumor paint product. 

     In addition to Tumor Paint, innovative research under the name of Project Violet was developed by Jim and his colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.  Project Violet aspires to develop a new class of nature-derived anti-cancer compounds that attack cancer cells while leaving healthy cells untouched.  This project largely depends on public donations – often from parents and friends of Olson’s pediatric patients - to fund the development of drugs to treat cancer or other diseases once thought incurable.

     Another pediatric cancer researcher, Dr. Michael Jensen, heads up the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research.  Affiliated with Seattle Children’s Hospital, the Ben Towne Center has in a few short years achieved great success with their immunotherapy research.  Currently, 13 children and counting are leukemia-free, the relapsed neuroblastoma trial is beginning, and there is hopeful progress in targeting brain tumors. Additionally, Grace Church sponsored a young team of cyclists last year in the Race Across America (RAAM), benefiting Mike Jensen’s research.  Two of these cyclists were classmates of our daughter, Hannah.  We have been proud to support both Jim and Mike’s work.

     We are excited to announce that for the first time ever, Dr. Olson and Dr. Jensen graciously agreed to come together in one special night to update our community on their work and progress in childhood cancer research.

This new Hannah’s Hopeful Hearts event will take place on Friday, April, 10^th, 2015, beginning at 7 pm at Grace Church on Bainbridge Island.  Following presentations from Dr. Olson and Dr. Jensen, a call for donations will take place.  During the night, wine, light hors d’oeuvres and a simple dessert buffet will be provided.  The evening will conclude with a lively concert by the band, St. Paul de Vence.  Friends with Jim, this band contributed to the Violet Sessions CD, a creative project that helps to fund research at the Olson lab. 

     We look forward to another heartfelt and inspirational evening to further the work of these two amazing doctors towards their mutual goals of finding less toxic, more effective treatments for pediatric cancer.  And in the words of our favorite QB who is #strongagainstcancer, Go Jim!!  Go Mike!!  Go Hawks!!

With gratitude and hope,  

Reba Ferguson and Bill Hunt

Gregg and I will be participating in this event, and we invite you to mark your calendars and join us. It's going to be a stellar evening, filled with good news, hope, thanksgiving and joy.

The Power of Love (or Serendipity)

On Thursday, David and I traveled to Seattle to meet a photographer and a representative of Seattle Children's Hospital's Guild Association. I had been asked to to coordinate a comforter delivery with a story which will be published in the Guild News (a regular publication of the Guild Association. By the way, if you don't know about the Guild Association, please follow this link and look around. It is a fabulous organization of which I am thrilled to be a member). I will post a link to the photos and article when they are published.

David came with me on the spur of the moment. We brought a batch of gorgeous quilts from the Fearless Quilters of Rolling Bay Presbyterian, along with a batch of fleece blankets from our dear neighbor, Cami - 28 in all. As we pulled into the driveway, I said to David, "I should have called Carly, and told her we were coming!" Carly is our representative at the Foundation, where Katie's Endowment resides.

The fact is, there are so many staffers within the organization of Seattle Children's Hospital who have touched our lives and blessed us that I would probably need to visit every week in order to see each of them - so I often don't tell anyone when I am coming, and just slip in and out delivering quilts. On this day, I was focused on the photo shoot, thinking we would meet in the reception area, hold the comforters and smile for the camera. Well, serendipity was at work behind the scenes...

We took the comforters to the Volunteer Office, and there was one of my favorite volunteers: Jane Humphries, a.k.a. "The Blanket Lady." Jane volunteers every week, delivering comforters to patients who have been admitted to the hospital. She was loading a cart, and brightened up when she saw the bounty we had brought for her to deliver. We learned that Jane was going to be part of the photo shoot, and that we were going to be allowed to go on the ward and actually GIVE a blanket to a patient. This just doesn't happen anymore, due to HIPAA regulations, so this was a rare treat.

Seattle Children's has a fantastic new facility called "Building Hope." Its design is gorgeous and family-friendly in the most progressive ways, filled with light, beautiful artwork, well-designed, attractive furnishings and comfortably-equipped rooms. It is a wonderful place - that is, if you have to be a patient in a hospital. I had a quick tour a while ago, but David had never seen it. That was our destination for the photo shoot - a nice surprise.

The photographer and manager of Guild Marketing arrived. As we were getting acquainted, Carly walked into the Volunteer Office - serendipity! She and David had never met, so I happily took care of that. She revealed that she was expecting a "special visitor" to tour the hospital with her, and was going to be in the same area as we were. Looking forward to running into them later, we said "goodbye" and prepared to deliver quilts and blankets.

Please visit #strongagainstcancer on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

We took some #strongagainstcancer photos before we entered the cancer unit. #STRONGAGAINSTCANCER is a new initiative being launched by Seattle Children's Hospital. A BIG announcement will be made during half-time of the NFL Thanksgiving Day football game. Please be sure to tune in!

Once we were admitted to the ward, we noticed a number of the staff who had taken care of Katie were on duty. Many hugs followed, with exclamations of surprise at seeing David, "all grown up." The nurses posed for photos with us around the cart, each one holding a blanket. What a beautiful, full-circle moment that was - to see our comforters in the hands of staff members who have brought such comfort to our family!

There was so much palpable love in the air that I kept saying, "This is the best day ever!" Then I thought about it and said, "Well, this is the best day on the cancer ward." And it got even better...

We were introduced to a lovely young patient who selected a pink fleece blanket with owls on it, and we posed together, with me handing it to her. As our eyes met, and I looked at her sweet mother standing behind her, something deep within me connected with them. I longed to join them in the room and just stay there; of course, that wasn't possible, and I would not have suggested such a thing, but I felt a kinship with them, without words. I have been in their place.

The serendipity continued when we ran into Carly and her "special guest:" it was Macklemore, at the hospital to visit patients. (You may have seen him on Instagram or Facebook in photos at the hospital with Russell Wilson, who visits every.single.week.) Carly invited us over to meet him and his friend, so WE MET MACKLEMORE on the cancer ward! I thanked him for visiting the hospital and told him how much it means to the patients and families. We spoke for a few minutes about the blankets; he has noticed them on his visits. He was so present as we spoke. (He has also been out on the streets at night, without fanfare, with Seattle's Union Gospel Mission - another reason for admiring him.) Oh, serendipity was at work - and David just happened to be along for the ride!

We also had a wonderful visit over lunch with one of our favorite doctors - one who has become a close friend, and who took care of all of us when Katie was in the ICU.

Lying in bed last night, I reflected on the day with overflowing gratitude. My one regret was that I wished I could have done more for that sweet patient and her mother, but I also know that I am living their worst nightmare, so I always - and I mean ALWAYS - stay away from people who are in active treatment, unless they seek me out. I wasn't at the hospital as a chaplain, I was there as a guild president, for a specific purpose, but oh, my heart was there in pastoral care!

What a day, filled with the power of love - of Katie's love for her comforter, our family's love and gratitude, the love of staff and benefactors, our guild member's loving acts of generosity, and the appreciative love of the hospital organization for its guild members. And what is serendipity, anyway - isn't it really LOVE in action?