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.
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 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.
Our family’s connection to the Boston Marathon goes back to 2002, the first year that Dr William Tan, a wheelchair athlete from Singapore, partnered with Jessie to compete in the Marathon and raise funds for Childrens Hospital Boston. He continued to race every year, and notably carried Jessie across the finish line on his lap in his regular push chair one year. He shared his medals with Jessie, her sister Sarah. Ironically, Dr. Tan was diagnosed with leukemia, and spent time undergoing chemo, radiation and a successful bone marrow transplant, before once more returning to the United States for several years to compete again in the Marathon.Other athletes have also raced in honor of and memory of Jessie, raising funds for Mass General Hospital and Dana Farber.
