 |
||||
    
|
Newsroom September’s Charity of the Month: Children’s Cancer Association
Joyful sounds replace the silence of fear and isolation. Upbeat rhythms replace inconsolable crying with happy sounds of laughter and joy. And soothing melodies play a comforting soundtrack to the miraculous ways in which music helps to heal children fighting cancer.
This year the MDRT Foundation awarded a $2,500 Quality of Life Grant to the Children’s Cancer Association (CCA) to help fund the Music RX® Program, which provides music therapy to seriously ill children from birth to age 18, while they receive hospital treatment.
This grant was awarded in honor of the volunteerism of Jeffrey M. Owens, a 17-year MDRT member and Silver Knight from Portland, Oregon.
“My daughter Melissa had spent the year battling Hodgkin's Lymphoma when we first became aware of this CCA,” Owens explained. “CCA treated my daughter to an incredible day at the spa and a wonderful lunch with limo service, as part of the Dream Catcher program — a CCA program that grants the wishes of children battling cancer. We had to give back and learn more about CCA.”
Since this initial experience, Owens has volunteered for CCA and in 2006 became an active member of CCA’s board of directors. In his leadership role, Owens is a volunteer speaker and ambassador and is committed to creating awareness for CCA.
The Music RX Program is an award-winning art therapy program. Four days a week, music therapists and trained volunteers bring mobile carts full of instruments such as rap machines, electronic drums, marimbas and harps into hospital rooms to take patients’ minds away from their illness by making their own music.
According to the Music Therapist Association, this type of music therapy has been proven to help alleviate the pain, stress and anxiety of cancer treatments. These music sessions allow children to create an escape from their often painful treatments and help them to express their feelings, which usually include fear, frustration and joy.
In addition to one-on-one music sessions, the Music RX Program also provides group music activities; evening hospital concerts for patients, families and staff; soothing live music for pediatric hallways and on-call palliative and comfort care for infants, children and families.
CCA, is based in Portland, Oregon, and was founded in 1999 by Cliff and Regina Ellis, in memory of their five-year-old daughter who lost her two-year battle with cancer. CCA serves more than 13,000 seriously ill children and the families in Oregon and Southwest Washington. CCA also provides nationwide advocacy and support for families who have a child battling cancer. |
|||
|
|
|||
