I was up until 1 am writing Christmas cards last night! I pulled my annual all-in-one-night card writing fest. The reason for the crunch? My love of (some would say hang up with) little details. Every year, my friend and generous pro-bono Rethink photographer, Christina Gapic, takes a family photo and I use one of the pics to make a festive holiday greeting card on tinyprints.com or Kodak.com. It’s always a tight turnaround because the cards take a few weeks for production and shipping from the States. Many friends who also make holiday photo cards use a fall photo or even a lovely summer one so that they can order their cards early. That’s not for me. I am only satisfied with a winter photo for my Christmas greetings. The last two years I have had my heart set on an ice skating shot, so we wait for the cold weather and it’s a bit of a scramble but the card are “on theme.”
We all know the saying, “don’t sweat the small stuff,” but I would argue my love of small stuff and tiny details is part of what makes Rethink Breast Cancer a special organization. Whether it’s a brochure promoting early detection or our office lounge where we host support programs or wanting the exact right venue to convey an event theme, things need to be just so and I just can’t help it. I get excited about the big opportunities but everyone in the office knows that I love to fuss over the tiniest of details too. Staff still talk about my brilliant idea to customize 200 gift bags for the guests at our Little Sweetheart Ball – I will admit, that went too far!
One very detail oriented program that we are proud of is our Support Saturdays program for young families dealing with breast cancer. Our current group has been a huge success. The moms have found their time with each other and our psychologists very helpful. And, the kids and dads have been fully engaged in all the activities that Morgan our Child Life Specialist organized for them and are even setting up play-dates outside the program. Our facilitators put a lot of thought into the supportive content – how it’s facilitated and rolled out – and our staff puts a lot of thought into all the extra touches like the bright, open loft venue, the food and the special educational toys for the kids. We hand-pick the volunteers and support people who we know will love helping with the program and will make the experience wonderful for our families. This past weekend, I attended the final session for our current group. While the moms met up on our lounge, the dads and kids decorated Fashion Targets Breast Cancer t-shirts, painted frames as a gift for their parents (our fabulous volunteer Sarah took portraits of each child so they could put a pic from the program in the frame) and enjoyed a wonderful slide show of pictures of them throughout the program. Sarah put together CDs of all the photos for each family and she and her mom, who is a teacher, created holiday gift bags for each family with educational toys and treats. Sarah is a volunteer after my own heart – each gift bag was specially tailored for the age and sex of the child and the CDs packaged up with a nice ribbon.
Anyone else out there who loves the small stuff? If you are also connected to the cause, I’d love to hear from you. Maybe you’d like to volunteer with Rethink!
Season's Greetings and Happy New Year!
MJ
MJ DeCoteau, Executive Director of Rethink Breast Cancer
We all know the saying, “don’t sweat the small stuff,” but I would argue my love of small stuff and tiny details is part of what makes Rethink Breast Cancer a special organization. Whether it’s a brochure promoting early detection or our office lounge where we host support programs or wanting the exact right venue to convey an event theme, things need to be just so and I just can’t help it. I get excited about the big opportunities but everyone in the office knows that I love to fuss over the tiniest of details too. Staff still talk about my brilliant idea to customize 200 gift bags for the guests at our Little Sweetheart Ball – I will admit, that went too far!
One very detail oriented program that we are proud of is our Support Saturdays program for young families dealing with breast cancer. Our current group has been a huge success. The moms have found their time with each other and our psychologists very helpful. And, the kids and dads have been fully engaged in all the activities that Morgan our Child Life Specialist organized for them and are even setting up play-dates outside the program. Our facilitators put a lot of thought into the supportive content – how it’s facilitated and rolled out – and our staff puts a lot of thought into all the extra touches like the bright, open loft venue, the food and the special educational toys for the kids. We hand-pick the volunteers and support people who we know will love helping with the program and will make the experience wonderful for our families. This past weekend, I attended the final session for our current group. While the moms met up on our lounge, the dads and kids decorated Fashion Targets Breast Cancer t-shirts, painted frames as a gift for their parents (our fabulous volunteer Sarah took portraits of each child so they could put a pic from the program in the frame) and enjoyed a wonderful slide show of pictures of them throughout the program. Sarah put together CDs of all the photos for each family and she and her mom, who is a teacher, created holiday gift bags for each family with educational toys and treats. Sarah is a volunteer after my own heart – each gift bag was specially tailored for the age and sex of the child and the CDs packaged up with a nice ribbon.
Anyone else out there who loves the small stuff? If you are also connected to the cause, I’d love to hear from you. Maybe you’d like to volunteer with Rethink!
Season's Greetings and Happy New Year!
MJ
MJ DeCoteau, Executive Director of Rethink Breast Cancer
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