Pan Mass Challenge 2023: Aug 5-6

  • Every dollar donated goes toward Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
  • Chris Doktor, Sarah Doktor, Nirajan Puri (our son-in-law), Gail Doktor, Jessie (our daughter and sister who lived with leukemia and died following two relapses) and many family members and friends have been involved in the Pan Mass Challenge for over 20 years: riding, volunteering, or supporting! 
  • For several years, our daughter Jessie was a poster child  for this event (see picture below). Then we started riding.
  • We ride, not just to remember and honor those who lived and died due to cancer, but for friends and family now living with cancer or flourishing as survivors. You know them: they’re your friends in this tight-knit community!
  • Children and adults in local communities and around the world continue to be treated by the Jimmy Fund Clinic, Dana Farber, and its affiliated hospitals including Chldrens Hospital Boston, Mass General, Brigham & Women and others. Local cancer centers and oncology clinics use treatment protocols researched, developed, and constantly updated by Dana Farber.
  • For 18 years, our team has been big, small, solo, and combined! We’ve been the inspiration, the energy, the organizers, the pedal-partners, the cyclists, the safety vehicle, the start-and-finish line volunteers, the midway water stop volunteers, and sometimes the storytellers. We’ve ridden for two days and over 180 miles and often for one day. Different routes, same cause! Your support makes all the difference .Many of our own local community members are treated in nearby oncology centers which all use trusted protocols and cutting-edge treatment developed by Dana Farber.

Castle Hill Christmas Installation: Sponsorship Supports Holidays at Childrens Hospital

Every year, Institution for Savings underwrites our annual holiday installation at Castle Hill during the Christmas and New Year season. Their support allows Bright Happy Power, whose volunteers create this installation, to allocate those funds to a week of Polar Express Christmas fun for oncology and transplant patients at Childrens Hospital Boston. We remember what it was like to spend holidays in the hospital!

We sponsored installations for a World Tree (Tree of Life) mythology winding up the stairwell in the Great House at the Crane Estate/Castle Hill. Additionally, we worked on bringing to life the Christmas legend of the poinsettia from Mexico, the lunar new year and lion dancer stories from China, and winter myths in a polar room featuring stories illustrated by Haida artists and other tales brought to life by Inuit writers and artists.

Dr. William Tan returns to race in Boston Marathon 2022 as wheelchair athlete in remembrance of Jessie!

Our longtime friend Dr. William Tan, now a transplant and cancer survivor himself, as well as scholar, healer, and athlete who has overcome polio, returned to Boston to complete another Boston Marathon! He has finished several of them, including the memorable year he carried Jessie over the finish line on his lap!

Update: Enjoy a few snapshots from lunch after the marathon, and a selection of images from the past.

NEW CHALLENGES, SAME HOLIDAY EVENT!

Like all other aspects of life, the hospital’s annual Polar Express week will change due to COVID19. This has been the signature event originated and supported by Bright Happy Power for oncology and transplant patients on several units of Children’s Hospital Boston.

This year, all celebrations take place bedside with family-only, supported by staff. Visitors and volunteers are not permitted.

As well, we have been asked to change the nature of the donations. The greatest needs are for everyday essentials and comfort items for patients, parents and siblings. We will provide funds to be used by hospital staff to develop a variation on Polar Express week that meets family needs while continuing to offer fun as well.

Additionally, the hospital cannot permit external donations of any items this year, but must order all the supplies from their own vendors. Your donations to Bright Happy Power will bring holiday cheer to the bedside of pediatric cancer and hematology patients.

Polar Express Celebration at Childrens Hospital Boston

In early December, patients and families at Childrens Hospital Boston enjoy the start of a week-long winter festival that highlights the Christmas book Polar Express. The event also includes several days of interactive holiday crafts and activities, and culminates with distribution of “Believe” brass sleigh bells.

This tradition began several years ago, and remains our annual program at the hospital for pediatric cancer and transplant patients, siblings, and families. The festival has expanded to include additional units, with contributions of pajamas, slippers and other essentials by many organizations.

We thank the Trustees of Reservations for welcoming our exhibit at the annual Christmas open house at the Crane Estate in Ipswich, MA. That exhibit is underwritten by the Institution for Savings, whose sponsorship then allows us to fund and organize this Polar Express event at Children’s Hospital Boston.

Greening the Great House

This year, we continued the annual tradition of decorating the Great House at the Crane Estate for Christmas, filling it with origami paper cranes and other hand-crafted paper-based decorations. The theme this year was a vintage Christmas, so we featured many 1920s Christmas portraits and card images. These included children and families surrounding Christmas trees, flappers dancing, Harlem men and women in fur coats, and young immigrants gathered around an Ellis Island Christmas tree, among many images. Light-hearted vintage Christmas images also made an appearance: dogs and cats, sleighs and snowmen, and Santa (of course).

Volunteers helped prepare and hang these historic images in the Grand Staircase. We thank the Trustees of Reservations for welcoming our exhibit at the annual Christmas open house at the Crane Estate in Ipswich, MA. That exhibit is underwritten by the Institution for Savings, whose sponsorship then allows us to fund and organize this Polar Express event at Children’s Hospital Boston.

About the Childrens Hospital Event: In early December, patients and families at Childrens Hospital Boston enjoy the start of a week-long winter festival that highlights the Christmas book Polar Express. The event also includes several days of interactive holiday crafts and activities, and culminates with distribution of “Believe” brass sleigh bells.

Decorating at Castle Hill Brings Holidays to the Hospital

Every year we decorate with origami cranes, hand-folded by local volunteers, for Christmas at Castle Hill on the Crane Estate, a Trustees of Reservations property in Ipswich, MA.

Each year, the stately home with its sweeping grounds, overlooking  Plum Island Sound and Atlantic Ocean, tantalizes visitors with Christmas-themed lights and flourishes. Several florists and decorators volunteer to create customized arrangements and vignettes in the historic rooms on the first and second floors. Visitors can imagine sitting down at the dining table,  stepping into a veritable wonderland, or slipping upstairs for a private moment in the bedroom. Fresh floral creativity and decorative installations draw out the holiday theme. Every year, our organization decorates the grand staircase.

This year we’re welcoming “Christmas by the Sea.” Bright Happy Power is filling the grand staircase with starfish, flowing currents of ribbon, air bubbles, and a swirl of paper birds. Watch for photos!

This installation is sponsored by Institution for Savings. Their underwriting of the Christmas event at Castle Hill allows Bright Happy Power to provide winter holiday programming at Children’s Hospital Boston. The hospital’s holiday program — kick-started by Bright Happy Power and inspired by the book and  movie Polar Express — has become a hospital-wide event during December. From the original one-day party on the oncology and stem cell/bone marrow transplant wings, it has expanded to several days of festive activities and is celebrated throughout the hospital’s inpatient units.

This hospital holiday event, funded by the sponsorship of our installation at Castle Hill, brings hope and happiness  to pediatric patients and their families during the winter season! What a wonderful trade-off: our volunteers spend a few days  decorating for Christmas, in turn Bright Happy Power provides the launch-point for a much-cherished holiday celebration at the hospital! One specialists calls it her favorite week of the year at the hospital.

Every paper bird folded, every dollar donated, and every wish bell delivered … makes a difference to children and families who need the opportunity to BELIEVE!

 

Zoo Day

Bright Happy Power is bringing a handful of volunteers to the hospital to host an event called Zoo Day. Patients and sibs can stuff their own animals, enjoy crafts and snacks, and take a break from life on treatment. Builds morale and emotional resilience.