Kim Elam, Lisa Younger, and George Iyoob from PPMC’s Diversity & Inclusion and Community Outreach committees pose with toys and other donations to the hospital’s holiday drives.
As always, the staff and volunteers at PPMC came through to brighten the holidays for colleagues, patients, families, and those in need.
The hospital’s Community Outreach and Diversity & Inclusion committees filled a room with donations: toys for children staying at the People’s Emergency Center shelter, children’s winter outerwear for Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, clothing for teen boys and young men living in a Child First Services group home, and toiletries to be given to patients in need upon discharge.
At the Abramson Cancer Center, five patients and their families were treated to a vanload of gifts and other surprises during the always emotional “Believe in the Magic of Santa” event sponsored by the Kathleen M. Rotz Lung Cancer Research Fund.
Gary Ginsberg, right, delivered toys to the People’s Emergency Center.
Christopher Rotz created the fund after his wife, Kathleen, died from non-small cell lung cancer in 2014. While its primary mission is to support lung cancer research, clinical trials, and treatments at Penn, the fund is also committed to making day-to-day life a little easier for cancer patients.
The fund’s donors go all out at the holidays. A woman with lung cancer who recently lost her son, her sole local support, received Rotz’s annual “big gift” – a check for $2,500 and a U-Haul gift card to help her relocate closer to family after she completes treatment.
A second patient told the cancer center that, as she was dying, she didn’t want “things,” but would most love to take her 23-year-old son to see “The Lion King” on Broadway again. Rotz didn’t just arrange for show tickets, but also gave them a limousine ride to New York City and an overnight stay in a downtown hotel with dinner and breakfast. A third patient, who is studying to become a social worker, received a new laptop to replace her broken one, along with a gift card for Olive Garden, where she wants to enjoy a meal with her husband when she’s done with her radiation treatment.
The Resource “Pool” tree took 1st prize in PPMC’s first holiday tree decorating contest.
On the patient care units, a team of nurses hosted the hospital’s first holiday tree decorating contest, with first place going to the Resource “Pool” tree, decked with pool floats and anchors with the names of units where nursing resource pool staff are “floated”.
“We have such talented and creative staff,” said Melisa Stanton MSN, MPH, RN, NPD-BC, director of Professional Practice and Nursing Outcomes. “It was truly enjoyable to visit all the units and see what they did with their themes.”