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Measuring Success with Smiles at Tracy’s Kids

by Matt Gerson, Founder and Chairman, Tracy’s Kids

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Our mission at Tracy’s Kids is to help children with cancer cope with the emotional toll imposed by the disease & its treatment. We enrich the patient experience by embedding Masters-trained Art Therapists in hospital clinics right alongside the medical team.

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I was diagnosed with cancer as a ten year-old and appreciate the challenges and disruptions that the illness imposes on a child as well as his siblings and parents. Our Art Therapists help families work through their concerns and fears. Today, some 80% of children diagnosed with cancer will beat the disease and spend the overwhelming majority of their lives cancer free. Our goal is to help them navigate this chapter of their lives and not let having been sick define who they are.

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Recently a parent of one of our kids — an oncologist himself — had tears in his eyes when he told us,

“Tracy’s Kids saved our family. The chemotherapy drugs are essentially the same in every hospital — what makes a difference to families is the type of care they receive. The therapeutic boost that Art Therapy provides is invaluable.”

We measure our success with smiles at Tracy’s Kids. Our Facebook page has picture after picture of kids looking happy despite the fact that they are enduring painful treatments, and having their lives disrupted. Parents tell me all the time that their children look forward to going to the clinic because our Art Therapists make it a safe space where kids can be kids — not sick kids — just kids sitting alongside others getting similar treatments. Many of our kids paint such a rosy picture of their clinic experience that their healthy friends sometimes accompany them to their treatments. That sentiment is inconceivable to me — and is proof positive that we are making a real difference.

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This coming March marks our Twentieth Anniversary. Tracy’s Kids started at Georgetown University Hospital and we are now in seven clinics in five states and have provided over $5 million in Art Therapy programs. We estimate that we work with 80% of the kids in the DC metro area who are battling cancers and blood disorders.

One of the things I am most proud of is that we are a lean operation that is laser focused on our programming — which is provided free-of-charge to those we serve. In 2016, 83% of our spending went to Art Therapist salaries and art supplies.

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We appreciate any and all support people are willing to offer. Whether it is spreading the word about us during the Combined Federal Campaign (#21655) or #GivingTuesday, hosting Art Supply Drives, or organizing any kind of fundraiser that helps sustain our wonderful program. Find us online at www.tracyskids.org

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