{"id":8657,"date":"2019-12-09T19:33:49","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T19:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/?p=8657"},"modified":"2019-12-09T21:24:04","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T21:24:04","slug":"second-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/second-chances\/","title":{"rendered":"Second chances"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the last ten years, I have worked with a local charity know as Griffin\u2019s Friends<\/a>. Quite ironically it is a children\u2019s cancer fund for patients being treated exclusively at Baystate Health, our parent company.<\/p>\n

Griffin\u2019s Friends is a group of volunteers dedicated to providing support to children with cancer.\u00a0 Founded in 1994 in Springfield, Massachusetts, Griffin\u2019s Friends is named for Griffin D. Kelleher.\u00a0 His legacy, in a unique way, supports children in treatment for cancer and their families. The goal of Griffin’s Friends is simple and appealing: to bring moments of joy to courageous kids. We\u00a0strive to ease the hardships of children in treatment for cancer and the families who love and support them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When you join Griffin\u2019s Friends you are assigned a team captain and are encouraged to attend all of the fun events we get to sponsor or host. Through the money we raise, we get to bring some normalcy back to these children and their families. By adhering to the mentality \u201clet them be kids\u201d allows these children to take a break from treatment. Bowling parties, day trips to Six Flags, Halloween costume parties, and my personal favorite; the annual pancake breakfast. We also do things like send the kids Valentines cards, pack Easter baskets, deliver Thanksgiving dinners, bring in Christmas presents and sometimes the \u201cjust because\u201d gift.<\/p>\n

We take into consideration things insurance doesn\u2019t always cover, such as provide gift cards for groceries, gas and supplemental therapies which the families may not otherwise be able to afford.<\/p>\n

Our biggest fundraiser throughout the year is our marathon challenge. This is daunting to say the least; but year after year when it\u2019s time to start training again I find it a lot easier to lace up my shoes knowing my early mornings, sore muscles, and hours running pale in comparison to the hours these brave kids spend being poked and prodded. All of the money we fundraise goes directly to families with whom are a part of the Griffin\u2019s Friends network.<\/p>\n

I also volunteer with a local animal shelter in East Brookfield called Second Chance Animal Services<\/a>. I\u2019ll be the first to admit that this is less of a \u201cchore\u201d and something I look forward to each weekend. Even don\u2019t mind cleaning up the dog\u2019s kennels. This is a no kill shelter that takes in Dixie dogs from the southern states and \u201cproblem\u201d dogs that would have otherwise been euthanized. Watching the dogs learn to trust, gain confidence, gain weight, and experience kindness (many for the first time) is more rewarding than I can begin to explain. Often times the only humans these animals get to see are the volunteers who show up. I make it a point to show up on holidays (with a ham on Easter) and on those rainy days when its understandably less likely for other volunteers to show up. However, I do have a lot of explaining to do with my own dog when I come home smelling like others. Though I wouldn\u2019t change it for the world.<\/p>\n

– Casey M.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the last ten years, I have worked with a local charity know as Griffin\u2019s Friends. Quite ironically it is a children\u2019s cancer fund for patients being treated exclusively at Baystate Health, our parent company. Griffin\u2019s Friends is a group of volunteers dedicated to providing support to children with cancer.\u00a0 Founded in 1994 in Springfield, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[910,788,909],"class_list":["post-8657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter","tag-associate-giving","tag-give-back","tag-volunteering"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/CM-IMG-2660.jpg?fit=960%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6ZZGa-2fD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8657"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8662,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8657\/revisions\/8662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hnetalk.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}