CCA Blog

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”  

After 14 years at the helm of CCA, my incredible team gave me the opportunity of a lifetime. Staff and board members kindly stepped up to help shoulder my responsibilities and allow my family to embark on a ten-year dream of an overseas adventure together.

After spending nearly five months in Florence, Italy, we excitedly walked off the plane last month ready to share our stories and the lessons we had learned! We had a renewed sense of accomplishment, self-reliance and gumption. We made new friends and found new teachers. Most importantly, we all learned a thing or two about the ways we approach life and its challenges.

A city full of artists, unbelievable food, rich history and endless possibilities, we fell in love with Florence long before we arrived. For all of us, it now holds beautiful memories and remarkable experiences.

For me, the sabbatical provided time to decompress, find a different rhythm, and meet exciting people with new ideas developed from a different world view. I cherished watching old men walking arm-in-arm for coffee in the morning, and the organized chaos of drivers never obeying traffic signs or yielding to pedestrians.  In fact, I became quite adept at understanding many of the hand gestures, shrugs and subtle communication style of the Italians! Heading to the mercato for produce and meat and alimentari (dry grocers) each morning was an adventure in patience, language barriers and courage. I loved learning new recipes, hearing stories about the USA at dinner parties, meeting ex-patriots, students and local families.

We have returned with a new appreciation for the beauty of our own country - full of responsive service, technology and a variety ethnic food. However, I believe we will always miss the daily rhythm of a simpler city - full of church bells, bridges, cobblestone streets, shopkeepers, and all the people that became a part of our daily landscape. The experience was all we could have dreamed of, and on the day we left Florence we knew we would never be the same. We developed an appreciation for the lives we have, and were honored with another place to call home.

Happy New Year my friends! May you all find the way to a few of your dreams and adventures in the year ahead. I am so glad to be back at CCA.

Warmly,

Regina

Every day in my work at CCA, I celebrate our ability to provide JoyRx to hundreds of kids returning home and getting better. But recently I have had the privilege to spend time with CCA families facing the terminal diagnosis of their child, as well as with parents whose children have died. It takes me right back to living and struggling through these heart-wrenching experiences with the death of my oldest daughter, Alexandra.

 In reflecting on my conversations with these parents, I wanted to share part of an interview with author Marilynn Robinson in an issue of the Paris Review. The interviewer recalled Robinson observing that Americans often avoid and deny the “larger issues in life.” Robinson shared: 

 The ancients are right: The dear old human experience is a singular, difficult, shadowed and brilliant experience that does not resolve into being comfortable in the world.  You are depriving yourself if you do not experience what humankind  has experienced, including doubt and sorrow. We experience pain and difficulty as failure, instead of saying, I will pass through this. Everyone I have ever admired has passed through this, music has come out of it, and literature has come out of it. We should think our humanity is a privilege.

 For families like mine, I believe it’s our friends and community who become our beacons of hope and humanity. They help us find our way as we travel through some of the darkest days of our lives, their compassion easing our hopelessness, doubt and sorrow. I hear many stories from families facing a child’s terminal diagnosis that speak to the powerful comfort they received when others simply acknowledged their pain and were not afraid to reach out to them in their grief and isolation.  Perhaps it was a warm dinner left on the doorstep, an enormous hug, music at their child’s hospital bed, a card, or an offer to stay at CCA’s Caring Cabin. Always, it was the simple gift of acknowledgment from friends and family and the support from our communities that made their loss and grief something they could ultimately survive and endure.

 Thank you for helping us, teaching us and being there.

 Warmly, Regina

I believe the new creativity, pressures and drive we are all feeling will encourage our entire community to collaborate more effectively, reduce duplication of services, spark new ways of doing business and support social partnerships. CCA provides some of the most human needs for families facing medical crisis:  comfort, joy, food, financial resource networks, and hope.

Where Are We?  Over the last four months, CCA has seen a dramatic rise in our family support, end-of-life support, mentorship during hospital stays, and bedside music for families we serve (a 136% increase in service requests over last year). In addition, our hospital partners are asking for more services from CCA to meet challenges and gaps they face as they adjust to budget and staff cuts. We are the only community organization addressing the non-medical needs of seriously ill children with our programs of joy, and our community needs us more than ever before. In the face of this increasing need, we approach the reality of a 20% overall reduction of corporate and foundation support. We are continuing to take steps to further tighten operations, trim costs, and deliver services even more efficiently than ever before.

What Are We Doing?  CCA is strong, healthy and continuing to work hard to sustain all current programming and operations without depleting our cash reserves. In March, we levied an organization wide expense reduction and leveraged untapped in-kind corporate and community support, like our new vendor management services with a local accounting firm and the engagement of 75% more weekly volunteers to help us answer phones, provide administrative and program support, ignite fundraising opportunities, and reach out more to our community. We feel and see good things happening.

For the last 14 years, the Children's Cancer Association has grown and thrived through the good and hard times because of the gifts, time and talents our friends and supporters have shared with us.  Now more than ever, the families we serve need your compassionate help to ensure we continue delivering CCA's on-of-a-kind JoyRx every day! We'd love to hear your ideas and we welcome your involvement. It's an exciting and wonderful time to help lead and see our organization grow and weather these economic changes in our local and national community. I believe we will be a stronger organization because of it.

I'd like to hear from you, please email me your ideas and suggestions. Thank you for helping us in every way you can! Good people, help, and compassion - it's what matters in all our lives.

Regina Ellis, Chief Executive Officer & Founder

It's inspirational and humbling to look back over my shoulder and see the incredible growth of CCA over the last 14 years. What started out around my kitchen table with 6 friends and family members dreaming about making the world a better place for seriously-ill children-has now grown to be one of Oregon's largest and most innovative children's organizations powered by hundreds of Portland's brightest minds and biggest hearts.

When we sat down to think about creating our new website, we pulled out a rainbow of colored markers and mapped out a place where families like mine, volunteers, medical professionals, kids, teens and supporters were warmly embraced and could get the information they needed very quickly.

I hope that's your experience here.

Our new JoyRx Blog gives you a personal look into our organization, introduces you to our amazing leaders, and will even share a few magical stories that come to life everyday at CCA. If you'd like to hear about something specific, please let me know. I look forward to keeping you in touch.

P.S. When I told my teenagers that their technologically-challenged mother was hosting a new CCA Blog...the laughter erupted. ‘Old dogs CAN learn new tricks’, I whispered over their raucous amusement!