Six Degrees of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Ahh, the power of social media/social good.  If you haven’t figured out how important it is, and how important the relationships you make online are, you will like this story.

My relationship with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital all started with a simple blogger event at Build a Bear in NYC last year. I wrote about an event that inspired me to no end nearly a year ago today. The occasion was for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s  launch of its  Cause for Celebration program.  I took my son out of school and we went to meet the children who were getting treatment at the hospital.  The joy of going to an event like that which had the sole aim to do good, to make a difference, impacted both me and my son.  It was there that I interviewed Marlo Thomas, the daughter of founder, Danny Thomas. And that was the beginning of my relationship with St. Jude.  It all started here on this blog but it got much bigger than anything I ever hoped it to be.  It was literally six degrees.

Fast forward a few months later and during a company meeting, my CEO expressed his desire to work with St. Jude on their annual Thanks and Giving campaign.  I reached out to the organization via Marlo Thomas herself (she is just as amazing in real life as she is on TV, on stage and in film), and within days I had a meeting with the hospital.  The campaign I spearheaded for my company, Ruckus Media Group, was one of the most satisfying marketing campaigns of my career.  We raised and donated a significant amount of money to help the children of St. Jude and our social media campaign helped make some noise, too.  I knew I was a part of something very special but I really didn’t know how special until this week.

I was part of the  St. Jude Partner Summit in Memphis, a meeting for all the partners of the Thanks and Giving campaign, including Target, Gymboree, Domino’s Pizza and other amazing companies.  We spent 24 hours hearing many stories about the dedication and passion that both the team that works at the hospital, as well as the children who undergo treatment there.  We heard from mothers of children who survived the gloomiest periods of their lives, from children and teenagers who are in remission and were saved by the team at St. Jude, from young adults who went into the hospital as children and are now successful and have children of their own.  One survivor, a beautiful young man, lost his right arm during his battle with cancer as a baby and is resilient as ever.  We heard from a member of the medical staff talk about the medical breakthroughs and how many children have been saved over the last 50 years.  We talked about the power of social good and using social media to promote our efforts.  It was an invaluable experience.

During the first night of our visit, we went to the Target House, where patients are assigned to live if they have to undergo treatment for 90 days or more. Upon entrance, we came into a room  with the following words engraved on the wall:

JOY

COURAGE

SMILE

INSPIRE

LIFE

LOVE

BELIEVE

Those words stayed with me as a I toured the facility and saw one of the apartments given to a family during their time here, the music room (donated by musician Amy Grant), playrooms, family rooms, party rooms and a beautiful playground donated by Hasbro (one of Ruckus Media’s partners).  Our group partied with the patients.  We played horse shoes, did arts and crafts, played ball and led face painting.  I was amazed by the calm, relaxed atmosphere both on my tour and at the party.  The families were behaving like any normal family.  Even though many of the kids were wearing masks to keep germs away and they had lost their hair from chemo treatments, they played happily and acted like they had no cares in the world.  That’s what St. Jude is like.  Optimistic and full of hope.

Well, if you can imagine how impactful that was, imagine the tour of the hospital.  We all broke into tours and were able to see firsthand where the money we helped raise is going and who we are all affecting.  It really puts social good in a new light when you can see up close and powerful the results of your company’s hard work.  We were not allowed to take photographs of the children and I really kept my camera and phone in my pocket to take it all in.  I didn’t have any interaction with the children during this time, but I had one experience that left a mark on my mind.

There was an adorable little girl playing in a waiting room, quite diligently making a meal for herself in a pretend kitchen.  I looked at her mother who had a handful of balloons attached to her stroller.  She looked at me, with big, hopeful eyes, and said, “We’re celebrating her last round of chemo today!  We couldn’t be happier.”

Imagine going through that as a mother.  The torture of not knowing whether your child will survive an illness and getting to the last phase.  The image of the sense of relief on her face will stay with me forever.

What I did take pictures of and what was very telling about a child’s experience at the hospital was the Teen Art show on the first floor.  These pictures spoke volumes about the pain and suffering that is endured at the hospital, though you see very happy children walking around the hospital.  Check this one out and read the words carefully:

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is the nation’s leading research and treatment center for children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases.  They cover all costs for treatment, travel, food and lodging for patients and one family member.  St. Jude freely shares its discoveries with the medical community worldwide. They have the largest protocol-based pediatric brain tumor research program in the country and has one of the largest pediatric sickle cell disease programs in the country.  St. Jude discovered a way to lessen side effects, making radiation treatment more effective for virtually all cancers.

To learn more about St. Jude and how you can help make a difference, go here.

Disclosure: My trip to St. Jude was covered by my company but all opinions and thoughts expressed here my own.