Lombardi Magazine Features Hope for Henry

The Winter 2008 issue of the Lombardi Magazine that Georgetown Hospital publishes has just come out. Look what they are featuring - Hope for Henry!

It is nice to be recognized like this in the community. It is only too bad that there are no more Harry Potter books coming out.

I just read that Amazon bought one of J.K. Rowling's handwritten, hand-illustrated children's book, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard," for $4M.

All the money goes to her charity, The Childrens Voice. According to her website, "The Children's Voice campaign wants to make life better for young people in care; across Eastern Europe and ultimately across the whole of the modern world."

The McGinn Group Delivers Gifts, Smiles and More

Today was an incredible day at Georgetown Hospital, thanks to our partner The McGinn Group.

This past Sunday, employees at The McGinn Group went to Toys R Us early one morning before the store was open to the public and bought tens of thousands of dollars of iPods, PSPs, Nintendo DS, portable DVD players and digital cameras along with piles of superhero-themed toys.

Led by company founder Dan McGinn and Hope for Henry Board Members Greg McGinn and Susan Toffler, company employees spent a lunch hour wrapping all the gifts.

Greg, Susan and their children joined me this morning at Georgetown Hospital to deliver gifts to the young patients. Katie was the first to choose her gift, picking a pink DS.

Within minutes, she was busily playing her game in the clinic as she waited for her appointment with Dr. Shad.

I couldn't see her smile as it was covered by a mask protecting her from the threat of germs, but from the sparkle in her eyes, there was no doubt that she was one happy girl. Several dozen patients had their pick, the PSP being the gift of choice.

I saw so many familiar faces as many of these patients attended the recent Hope for Henry Game Night, the Hope for Henry Halloween party and other special events this past year. Because of the serious nature of their illnesses, these patients are here for the long haul.

They often come to the clinic three times a week for hours on end. Having toys like PSPs and iPods to fill those hours with entertainment, smiles and laughter makes it fun and a happy child in the midst of all the frightening procedures and uncertaintly brings so much pleasure and needed relief to their parents.

On days like today, I am so grateful to have partners like Dan, Greg and Susan to help us bring happiness into the lives of these families.

This is the second year in a row the McGinn Group has generously given of themselves to help out these kids during the holiday season.

We look forward to doing this with them again year after year.

Superhero Celebration 2007

Invites are going out shortly for our big Superhero Celebration. Here are some highlights from the last one. What will make the upcoming event fun is that we are going to combine our hospital party and our fundraiser into one big celebration. The people who contribute to Hope for Henry will get to meet first-hand the kids who they're helping.

We are very excited!

Hope for Henry "Game Night" Hosted by Michael Cherner

This was a "first ever" for Hope for Henry Foundation - a Game Night (though it was during the day) - and it was a huge success. There were a lot of kids from the pediatric Hem/Onc clinic at Georgetown who showed up and had a great time. And, as always, we brought Game Night up to the floor for the kids who were too sick to come downstairs to the clinic.



We look forward to having these Game Nights at other hospitals soon.