January 2016

Inside this issue:

New Kids on the Block

2

Super Steppers 2

Director’s Corner 2

5200 Holiday Fun 3

Outpatient Holiday Events 4

PBMT Happenings 5

Winner’s Circle 6

January 2016

A monthly newsletter for Duke Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant patients, families and supporters

The Community Counts

Holiday Traditions

The volunteer-based

Family Support

Program is dedicated

to caring for, serving,

and lightening the

burden of the Duke

Pediatric Blood and

Marrow Transplant

Community through a

comprehensive array

of services and

resources.

One of the missions of the Duke PBMT Family Support Program is to ensure that

patients and families are able to experience the regular celebrations and routines of life throughout the

year, especially holidays. Holiday seasons are often times of special traditions, decorations, and fun

activities, and that is also true with how we celebrate the holidays in Duke PBMT.

Our outpatients start things rolling right after Thanksgiving with our ornament decorating party at

Hillandale Golf Course, sponsored by the H.E.A.R.T.S. Club at Hillandale Golf Course. Patients and

family members have the opportunity to make decorations for their homes and also to decorate the

H.E.A.R.T.S. Club tree. Our inpatients held their own ornament decorating activity as well to get the

playroom and their rooms ready for the holiday season.

Outpatient families were also invited to our Holiday Party held at the Duke Gardens on Decem-

ber 16th. There were reindeer games, yummy treats, arts and crafts and fun activities. Piggies and Paws,

Inc. came to make some special keepsakes using the handprints and footprints of those in attendance. Santa

himself even stopped by to join the excitement! The night ended on a perfect note with our tradition of

singing “This Little Light of Mine” while holding battery-operated candles and sharing warm wishes with

5200, the Children’s Health Center, and the world.

The inpatient nursing team once again joined in the fun and organized a door-decorating contest

for the holidays. Patients were able to garnish their doors with ribbon, wrapping paper, bows and whatever

items they could find to express their festive spirit. A variety of awards were passed out celebrating the

creativity and spirit shown by the inpatients.

Our inpatients were also able to enjoy the 10th Annual Gingerbread House Activity with Nurse

Bobbie, giving them an outlet not just for their creativity, but also their architectural skills! Patients and

caregivers got creative with their sugary engineering, crafting walls, chimneys, and gates out of candy and

icing. Smiles were plentiful in the playroom as the gingerbread city came together, maybe because some of

the candy got consumed!

Of course, much of the holidays is about giving gifts, and Duke PBMT was once again truly

blessed by so many who wanted to make sure that our patients and families were well loved! We were

happy to continue a recent tradition and hosted the 3rd Annual Holiday Workshop on December 15th and

16th at our administrative offices on Morreene Road. Outpatient families, often far from home and con-

fined by safety requirements, can be in a tricky situation when it comes to holiday shopping. The event,

sponsored by H.E.A.R.T.S. Club at Hillandale Golf Course, Joey’s Little Angels, MeFine Foundation,

Rocky Mount Data Quality COE Employees of PNC and staff of Umstead Pines provided an opportunity

for caregivers to choose holiday gifts for outpatients and siblings. Music, homemade treats provided by

Preserve Bible Study, and hot cider made the event a festive occasion. Volunteers from Cisco Systems, Inc.

and the Rocky Mount PNC group assisted with an activity for the children and wrapped gifts while care-

givers shopped. We are thankful for everyone’s efforts to make the workshop a success.

Our inpatients were blessed by the generosity of several special visitors from groups bringing all

types of holiday joy. The Kim Jones Foundation, the Sailsbury family, the friends and family of Owen and

Mabry Webb, BRYANTSTRONG and friends of Elijah Watterson, and the family of Preston Winslow

provided a wealth of presents to our inpatient families to make sure they didn’t miss out on anything just

because they were in the hospital. Of course, our good friend, Santa Claus, visited on Christmas Eve to

share gifts and cheer with our 5200 families as well.

We are fortunate to have a strong community of PBMT supporters to share the holidays with. We

hope that each of you enjoyed celebrating with your own traditions this December and wish you the best in

the year to come.

Page 1

New Kids on the Block

Page 2

“New Kids on the Block” features patients on the 5200 unit who were admitted for transplant during the month of December. It is our way to honor them and help the other inpatient families get to know them.

Super Stepper Patients are able to join the Super Stepper Club by walking or riding a minimum of 250 laps

while on 5200. In addition to being featured in Community Counts, we give the patient a com-

memorative T-shirt with their picture on it to mark their accomplishment. Throughout their jour-

ney to being a Super Stepper, patients receive prizes as incentives to keep as a reward for their

great efforts.

The Super Stepper inductee this month is Carlos who walked three hours per night with his

mom. Carlos didn’t submit his number of laps or request any prizes for his efforts. When asked

why he was so committed, Carlos stated; “The first 10 laps are for me and the rest of the laps are

for the kids who can’t walk. It breaks your heart they can’t get out of bed and I can relate to what

they feel.” Congratulations to all of our dedicated walkers.

Director’s Corner

Aaliyah, age 11

Winston-Salem, NC Haley, age 16

Harrisonburg, VA

Elijah, age 23 months

Wake Forest, NC Addison, age 5 months

Travelers Rest, SC

As we begin the new year and look forward to all the possibilities it brings, we wanted to take the time to thank

two special friends who have been long time supporters of the Duke PBMT Family Support Program (FSP), the Katie

Swaney Foundation and the Fox Family Foundation. These two foundations have been dedicated supporters of FSP

through the years, with each providing a unique facet to what our program does.

For the past nine years, the Katie Swaney Foundation has provided a grant to FSP that has sponsored Music Ther-

apy on 5200, Pizza Wednesdays on 5200, and our parking pass program. For those who have been through transplant,

these three areas are some of the ways in which families have felt some of the most consistent impact of our work. We are

so appreciative not just that the Katie Swaney Foundation has sought to ensure the availability of these programs, but they

have also enabled us to look towards growing Music Therapy in order to allow Tray Batson, our Music Therapist, the

chance to do new and innovative programming with our patients. In addition, many a caregiver has bookmarked Wednes-

day as they look forward to enjoying pizza provided in the caregiver kitchen. Being able to relieve the stress of finding

one more meal is a burden that always could use lifting. We were blessed to be able to have some of the members of the

Katie Swaney Foundation come for a visit right before Thanksgiving as we were able to update them on the great work

that they had helped make happen and also thank them in person.

The Fox Family Foundation has annually sponsored our Fox Family Matching Challenge as a way to encourage

others to make donations to the FSP, which has allowed us to grow our ability to provide financial support to patients and

families during transplant. We have benefitted from the foundation’s generosity for the last nine years, and look forward to

their ongoing stewardship to our program, as well as their encouragement of others to join them in giving to the FSP. By

using their gift to encourage others to give, they have truly sought to increase the reach of their dollars, making the impact

on our program even greater. We can’t express our gratitude enough to these two foundations for what they have enabled

us to do in the past and for the future. We wish everyone the best for 2016! -Scott

5200 Holiday Fun

Page 3

Outpatient Holiday Events

Page 4

Page 5

PBMT Happenings

It’s going to fall mom! Where’s my mom? Tara’s tower MINUTE TO WIN IT Games

Flying marshmallows Sweet Gus Snuggles Serenna grew up Farewell Carlos

Aaliyah got a Bingo Sisters visit with Santa Gracie catches a quick nap Blaize and his dancing robot

Traditional Chinese Christmas eve dinner Happy 14th Birthday Khaleda Remmy’s confetti parade

Page 6

Winner’s Circle

If we have inadvertently left you off our Winner’s

Circle, we apologize and please let us know!

We would also like to thank the following groups for providing Community Meals for families on 5200:

Aldersgate United Methodist Church

Claudina Bonetti

DTM Foundation

Ephesus Baptist Church

Katie Swaney Foundation

Macedonia/Salem Baptist Churches

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church

Family of Amy Wolf

Family of Kimberly Jones

We are grateful to all of the people who help support PBMT families through contributing their time, energy, and resources.

We would like to thank the following who made monetary donations:

We would like to thank the following who made memorial donations:

We would like to thank the following who made in-kind donations:

David Bartlett for facilitating Santa’s participation in our

outpatient Winter Wonderland holiday party

David and Amy Beebe of Cute and Sweet Boutique for

donating caregiver celebration cupcakes

Bobbie Caraher for donating gingerbread house supplies

Susan Crawford of Sweet and Sassy Cakes in

Hillsborough, NC for creating Khaleda's 14th birthday

Icing Smiles cake

Duke DCRI SPA for donating gift cards and art supplies

from our wish list

The H.E.A.R.T. S. Club of Hillandale Golf Course for

sponsoring the inpatient and outpatient ornament

decorating activities

The Kearney family for putting together discharge bags

The family of Jordan Lehman for donating gift cards

The Light of Hope Fellowship for donating toys and

toiletry items in memory of Darian Lester

Mary Morris for donating Kroger gift cards

Panera Bread at Streets of Southpoint for donating mitten

cookies for our cookie decorating station at the outpatient

Winter Wonderland holiday party

The family of Maxwell Pogers for donating toys

Preserve Bible Study for donating homemade treats for

the outpatient holiday workshop

Project Linus for donating pillowcases and laundry bags

The family of Roslyn Rogers for donating books,

Halloween stickers, and storage bins

The staff of Sarah P. Duke Gardens for allowing us to use

the Doris Duke Center for our outpatient Winter

Wonderland holiday party

We would like to thank the following for sponsoring our Outpatient Holiday Workshop:

The H.E.A.R.T.S. Club at Hillandale Golf Course Joey’s Little Angels MeFine Foundation Rocky Mount Data Quality COE employees of PNC Scott, Mike and staff of Umstead Pines

We would like to thank the following for providing holiday gifts for our inpatient families: The BRYANTSTRONG organization in memory of

Elijah Watterson The Kim Jones Foundation The family of Jenna Sailsbury The family and friends of Owen and Mabry Webb The family of Preston Winslow

Steve Barsh and Amber Salzman

Michael and Maureen Jeffreys

Ken and Julie Bihn

Claudina Bonetti

Amy Brown in honor of Caroline Britt

Lori Combs in honor of Christian Hunter Combs

Ryan Cook

Cord Blood Registry

Clyde Cooper’s Barbecue of Raleigh, NC

The Fox Family Foundation

Hope Community Church Small Group

Webb and Marty Howell in honor of Jeremy Howell

James and Cynthia Johnson

Brian and Jill Kaufman

Marilyn Kaufman

Charles, Susan and Kyle Lindley

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Durham, NC

Drs. Marty and Ann Murphy

Sarah Negri

Sara Payne in honor of Will Zimmerman

Mary Sides in honor of Zach Sides

Chris and Harry Sundberg n honor of Nate Parry

David Ward

De Cesare Agency, Inc. in memory of Michael McGuinniss

Amber Hammer in memory of Kathryn Vanderlinde

Lucy Harris in memory of Kathryn Vanderlinde

Walstein and Vivian Jordan in memory of Stephen Jordan

Marion Kalbacker in memory of Kathryn Vanderlinde

Marion Kalbacker in memory of Mary Ellen Owen

Sloan Kojis in memory of Kathryn Vanderlinde

Sloan Kojis in memory of Mary Ellen Owen

Bill, Pam and William Kristoff in memory of Alyssa Kristoff

Sherone Massey-Burgess in memory of Kathryn Vanderlinde

Robin McGahee in memory of Ian McGahee

Cara McGuinniss in memory of Michael McGuinniss

Filomena and Martin McGuinniss in memory of Michael McGuinniss

Danny and Karen Mercer in memory of Barry Lee Pope

George and Jeanette Oliver in memory of Maxwell Pogers

Bob Ruggiero and Lucy Rodriguez in memory Dana Ruggiero

Carey Sanders in memory of Madalyn Dooley

The Katie Swaney Foundation in memory of Katie Swaney

Gary and Caroline Sweezy in memory of Barry Lee Pope

James and Jeri Young in memory of David Cummings