President's Message
Sharon Feldman
Hello Everyone,
You will be thrilled
when I tell you that
we now officially
have a Mended Little
Hearts (MLH) chapter in Rochester.
As you know, last month we had an
Ice Cream Social for children with
congenital heart disease (CHD) and
their families. When I was trying to
get this party together, I had no idea
that a young mom, Jennifer Kowal
was also trying to start up a local
chapter (look for her story in the
newsletter). Because of the HIPPA
policy we were unaware of each
other and the efforts that we were
both going to, to form a MLH
chapter here.
I had help from Dr. Stephen Cook, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong and also the American Heart Association Board President, who brought MLH to the attention of many people at Strong Hospital in influential positions. Jen Giblin, Social Worker, Pediatric Cardiology, Golisano Children’s Hospital at Strong, also brought our messages to her Board. Finally the decision was made by Strong that they would support a Mended Little Hearts program.
Jen was instrumental in sending out our invitations to the families and also placing our invitations in the pediatric clinic. By the time we had our Social, Jennifer Kowal already had found 20 families who wanted to be part of a MLH chapter. Jennifer worked very hard to get things going.
We had many sponsors who made the Social possible. The Jewish Community Center gave us a room to use, Wegman’s and Top’s each donated gift cards that enabled us to purchase all that we needed to serve, Lisa’s Hallmark gave us stuffed animals and bracelets, Friends of Strong gave us handmade teddy bears, Lori’s Natural Foods gave us bags of organic apples and the Grease Paint Alley Clowns did a wonderful job of entertaining everyone with balloons and face painting.
Thank you also to our MH members who were able to get our sponsors and/or who came to help out at the Social: Gene Binder, Tony and Jo Carlisi, John and Nancy Schmidt Harvey Steron, Bob and Dawn Peri and Melissa Bowman ( a pediatric nurse). A yummy time was had by all.
Congratulations to Louise Criticos, Director of Friends of Strong Memorial Hospital for winning the Excellence Award. She is one of only six staff members and two groups to receive the award for 2009. Along with managing approximately 1300 volunteers, she also oversees the lobby and waiting rooms, information desk, specialty shop, patient discharge, flower delivery and important fund raisers like the Rochester River Run and Gala Wine Tasting. If that wasn’t enough since 2005 Louise has coordinated and directed all medical blood drives and has served as president of New York Association of Directors of Volunteer Services from 2004-2006. Louise we are so proud of you and the wonderful job that you are doing, please take a well-deserved bow.
There is a new website that you might like to access. It’s www.HealthyHeartsinHarmony.com. Mended Hearts, Inc has partnered with Eli Lilly & Co. and Daiichi-Sankyo, Inc. to bring this website to you. Healthy Hearts in Harmony helps patients and their loved ones explore a holistic approach to recovery by providing information about: Staying fit, Eating Healthy, Benefits of Music Therapy and maintaining emotional health during the recovery process and lots more, so check it out. We send out get well wishes to the following MH members: Michael Bradley, Bob Joyal, Verna Mendola and Ron Tuttle.
Spring is almost here!!!!! We made it through another long winter.
Hope to see you at the March meeting. It will be great.
Sharon