This past weekend was probably one of the best weekends I have ever had. A team from KWN headed north to Philadelphia to host a Holiday of Hope party at the Shriners Hospitals for Children. After months of planning, we finally got to see everything come together and it couldn’t have gone any better!

Hundreds of children traveled to the hospital to spend the afternoon dancing with Spongebob and Elmo and feasted on pizza, cheese steaks, cake and more!

The best part of the afternoon was standing back and just watching – watching the kids smiling and watching the parents watching their kids. These kids had been through so much with their treatments and therapies but you could just look at their faces and see those worries were the farthest things from their mind. They were laughing and playing and enjoying what they do best – just being a kid.

Our vendors were great also! This weekend wouldn’t have been possible without them. Since they were so gracious to donate their time, I didn’t want them to feel they had to stay around any longer than they had already committed to. But when the time came for the party to end no one was ready to stop! The DJ (Cutting Edge Entertainment) kept spinning tunes; the face painter and air brush tattoo artist (Natalie Foxhill – Amazing Face Painting and Beth Miller – Creations by Beth) still had a line and kept right on working with smiles! Everyone was great!

Events like this are such a special time for KWN. If we are able to distract the kids for even a few hours and make sure they enjoy themselves, all the planning and stressing on our part was well worth it!

Margo
HOTM Facility Coordinator

I can admit it. I used to have a HUGE fear of making phone calls. For some reason, I was intimidated by the voice on the other end of the line. I was scared to make important calls, even scared to order pizzas…

When I interviewed for the position here at Kids Wish Network, I wasn’t aware that I would be making as many phone calls as I do on a daily basis. And I am glad that I didn’t. If I had known the amount of time I would be spending on the phone each day, I would have never accepted the job, and I would have missed out on a really awesome experience, and the opportunity to face my fear and to conquer it.

Part of my job here requires me to call people all across the country for various reasons. I call potential wish families, families who are in the wish application process, doctors’ offices, hospitals, and social workers: all complete strangers who less than two months ago would have intimidated me to the point of no return. But now, with probably close to 1 thousand phone calls under my belt I find that my former fear of the phone has vanished, arming me with the ability to dial numbers without any apprehension.

I guess that my fear stemmed from the thought of speaking to someone who would yell at me, or making me feel stupid. I am certainly not the confrontational type, and I usually go out of my way to avoid a skirmish of any sort. Working at Kids Wish Network, I have found that probably 99.9 percent of the people I interact with during my daily phone calls are not only nice, but are genuinely pleased to speak with me. Having a friendly voice on the line is always a bright spot in anyone’s day, and even more so for an intimidated, recently graduated college student.

So here is a thank you to all the friendly voices out there who have given me the courage to conquer my fear and become victorious in dialing digits!

Elizabeth