Internally Fascinated

From May 16

Today I attended the St. Jude Auxiliary meeting where Dr. Merchant came to share about the new proton machine that is being built at St. Jude. Usually I am completely turned off by scientific topics. However, the impressive facts combined with its life-saving purpose had my attention from the beginning. Basically, this 3 story machine will provide more precise radiation treatment to patients. Rather than treating a broad area that includes healthy tissue with the cancer cells, the proton machine will specifically target the tumor. The positive implications from this will significantly lessen some of the side effects for patients. The amount of energy that it takes to execute this type of treatment is so much that the part of the building where the machine will be will be surrounded by 10-ft thick concrete walls. The accuracy, though, is within tenths of a millimeter. While everyday is eventful at St. Jude this was particularly exciting for me. To hear the statistics and see the plans for this new life-saving treatment center reminded me why there are several thousand people on the St. Jude campus everyday: "Finding Cures. Saving Lives." Patients and their families are blessed to have such an amazing place to come to for treatment and I have been blessed to make a small contribution. Even more so, I am excited that I heard the inside scoop on the massive hole in the ground that I drive past every day. One of my favorite things about this hospital is that there is always progress. There has been a 90% increase in the survival rates of some cancers, but until it's 100% for all of the catastrophic diseases treated at St. Jude, the work at will never stop.

Internally Excited

I have not posted any updates in quite a long time so here goes the rewind/fast-forward version:

The end of April was an especially exciting time for the Volunteer Services department at St. Jude. I had the privilege of writing an nomination for one of our Volunteens (summer program) to be Youth Volunteer of the Year. Even though I had not yet met her, it was easy to find out why she deserved the award. After reaching out to her teachers and volunteer supervisors, the Volunteer Coordinator worked with me to revise the nomination; I found it difficult to capture her service and heart for St. Jude into 3 short pages. I submitted the nomination and on April 18 I attended the Volunteer Mid-South Spirit of Giving Awards with our coordinators and director. The nominee, her parents, and her teacher were there as well. We were up against some tough competition, but I am excited to say that she won!!! Most of all I am so proud of her ( I have since gotten to know the nominee) and honored to be a part of her nomination. However, I have to admit, my competitive spirit was definitely satisfied as well. :)

The following week was the annual Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon that our department had been working on all semester. It went very well! There only a couple minor glitches and they were quickly fixed and easy to look past. We just filled the ballroom at the Marriott to capacity and all of those that attended had nothing but great things to say about the event. The memorabilia table turned out really well and the videos did, too. There was a brass quintet that entertained guests as they arrived and we featured a patient who sang and played the guitar during the lunch. As well as it all went, I think I can speak for the department in that we were glad it passed. It was fun to prepare for but we were ready for a break!

Since the luncheon, things have somewhat slowed down. Laura (the other intern and my partner in crime) and I began wrapping up our projects and preparing for the new summer interns.