Behind The Scenes: St Jude Childrens Research Hospital

Hey Cuties,

I finally get to share some of the details of my trip back to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. A lot has changed since my last visit in 2016, I was shocked. Yet happy to now that they are continuing to grow and that growth is thanks to you. I have remained active since my first visit, I told you I take this seriously. You can’t be a change maker by sitting on your butt and doing nothing.

Quick and easy ways to help:

#1 Donate to my St. Jude Team Mimi’s Cuties + Join me in DC September 29th to walk/run

#2 Support Childhood Cancer Awareness Month + Run Walk

#3 Visit participating Chili’s restaurants between now and October 3rd. They have several ways you can donate during your visit.

If you’re thinking of donating big, then there’s lots of things apart from just donating money. You’re someone who makes sure to spend a significant amount of your earnings on charity every year, and for that, I salute you! Hospitals like these deserve every bit of donation for tirelessly working towards such worthy goals. You could go and directly speak to the hospital management and find ways to donate equipment, beds, toys for the children, and since using a face mask is essential in any hospital environment, you could donate those too! There’s plenty you can do.

St. Jude Mission: The mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the vision of our founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family’s ability to pay.

Danny Thomas was a Lebanese American nightclub comedian, singer, actor, and producer whose career spanned five decades. He created and starred in the long-running television sitcom Make Room for Daddy (also known as The Danny Thomas Show) (1953–1964), in which he played the lead role of Danny Williams. He was also the founder of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He is the father of Marlo Thomas, Terre Thomas, and Tony Thomas.

We had another amazing guided tour. Last time Joel was my tour guide and I lucked up with Joel again this year. OH EM GEE! Even Joel had a major update since my last visit. He had a co-tour guide name Lindsey and she was his fiance. Even better, she is also a former St. Jude patient like Joel. They met as children, how dope of a story is that. Talk about full circle. On Saturday, September 1st Joel and Lindsey said I do on the St. Jude property. Do you have goosebumps yet?

Their story is so freaking epic that the New York Times wrote about it. You can read about their amazing journey here. They get each other on levels we could never imagine. I’m so happy for them. Instead of wedding gifts, they asked for donations to St. Jude.

My absolute favorite thing in the St. Jude hospital is the Radio Flyer wagons. A lot of families use these for the kids instead of wheelchairs. So cute right? This is yet another small thing that is a big deal. If the kids aren’t feeling well they lay out in the wagon with a blanket. While others sit up and play on their tablets.

When you visit St. Jude you almost want to capture every single thing you see because it is cool and has inspiration weaved into it somehow. This hallway is one of my favorites hence my need to capture it. It is filled with St. Jude patient artwork.

We all know that home is where the WiFi connects automatically.

This was the ultimate fun room. Think about a hard day you had, and you want to just escape life at the moment and go to an island, or swim with the fish, or zone out into outer space. This interactive screen can take you there. Riche and I were capturing things in the ocean by moving our hands around. It was so much fun, like liberating little kid fun. The patient can come in this room and escape it all temporarily, or join others for a movie screening. Either way, it is my favorite room in the entire hospital.

Here is a video I took while the others were playing. So cool right?

These kids know they are battling some real stuff, but St. Jude gives them a chance to push that to the back of their mind if only for a moment. This is the view from one of the hospital windows. You can’t tell, but the wind was blowing this beautiful sequin-like designs in a wave-like fashion. I legit have been thinking about a way to recreate something like this on a smaller scale.

This is a partial view of the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital campus.

This is a reminder of their continued growth. They are constantly looking to do more, to reach more people, to accommodate additional education space, and research and anything else that will push the mission to the next level.

Before I leave I always check out the gift shop. I can never have enough St. Jude swag. This time I noticed these plush monkeys, I swear they were the softest stuffed animals I have ever touched. I was amused by their name tag, because who names a stuffed monkey Eli.

Well, behind me was St. Jude patient Eli on a poster, and apparently, he and the monkeys share a similar personality. OH EM GEE! That made me love them even more.

St. Jude’s has a recurring theme of hope. Honestly, it is a theme we should all adopt.

Thank you to everyone for the support, I appreciate it. You can still help me reach my goal St. Jude Team Mimi’s Cuties and you can do it with me in DC September 29th to walk/run.

Chat with me in the comments below or FB, IG, and Twitter.