Happy New Year Everyone, I
hope you had some time over the holidays to count your blessings like I
did! I stepped off the life
train for a little while and it was great! With a little guy like Matthew in
your life, you learn to
treasure the small things and quality time as a family is really important! We
had a lovely thanksgiving
at my sister in law Marianne’s house. On Friday, December 13th we
drove 5
hours north to spend the
weekend at Santa’s Workshop in Wilmington, New York. I felt like I was in a
magical snow globe for the
weekend. We had a great time and made some memories that will last a
lifetime. Christmas and New
Year’s flew by and last weekend I took the boys to Mount Snow in
Vermont to try some skiing,
they loved it! Matthew did well in the cold as long as he was bundled up
and he managed to ski down
some little bunny slopes very well!
The first few weeks of 2014
have been busy already with lots of things going on. First and foremost I
have been speaking to State
Representative Joseph McNamara in Rhode Island about mandating
pulse oximetry screening on
every newborn in his state. Secondly we are full steam ahead with our
“Hug a Heart” Pillow
Projects at three locations, The Kid’s Care Club in New Fairfield on February 6th,
The Sherman School on
February 13th and Academy of our Lady in Glen Rock, New Jersey
sometime in
March. We anticipate over
500 pillows. We have also been approached by Heart Hero’s an
organization out of Omaha,
Nebraska for two reasons, one they are featuring Matthew’s story on
their blog in February and
secondly they are sending us 100 Heart Hero Capes to go with some of our
pillows thanks to
Junkluggers, an organization in Fairfield, CT who are donating the funds to do
that.
We are also partnering up
with the Danbury Whalers and The Sound Tigers for two fundraisers. The
first one is with The
Danbury Whalers on Sunday, March 2nd at 5:00pm. The second one is
with The
Sound Tigers on Sunday,
March 30th at 3:00pm. The proceeds from all the tickets that we sell
will
come back to our
organization. Tickets will be available for purchase on the website for both
games
starting next week.
Lastly and most importantly I are proud to announce the recipients of
the Matthew's Hearts
of Hope grants which
will be going to physicians who are furthering Congenital Heart
Defect research.
Each recipient will be receiving a $5,000 grant.
Dr. Hannah Fraint -
Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York
Dr. Joanne Chiu -
Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York
Dr. Shaun Mohan -
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Dr. Simon Lee - Mount
Sinai Hospital, New York
Here is what one of
the winning hospitals had to say about the impact that MHOH is having:
Marie,
Thank
you so much for supporting such important research in CHD with Matthew’s
Hearts
of Hope Research Grants and for founding the Matthew’s Hearts of Hope
organization!
We are honored to have one of our fellows be the recipient of one of the
grants
(congratulations Joanne!)!! We will certainly keep you posted on the
findings of
Dr.
Chiu’s research as the year goes by. The grant money will certainly make
a huge
difference
in making ongoing study possible!
Thanks
again!
We are making a
difference for sure in big thanks to all your support, thank you from the
bottom of my heart and
Matthew’s half a heart!
