CARTA DEL PRESIDENTE

We are living in an extraordinary time – and not in a good way. I know how I feel about how dangerous the world seems with wars, rumors of wars, climate change and power that seems lodged in individuals who are likely not to wield that power responsibly.  In the macro view, the world is scary, and I am scared.

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Then there is the micro view here at Lakeside. I see dangerously ill children survive.  I see their parents come to us with a load of pain associated with having such a dangerously ill child – and then they get help from us. These are micro world miracles. And I will take my miracles where I find them right now. I rather like this micro world I live in here.

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In the last few years, we had a family come to us with a young boy with multiple medical issues. This boy had his needs addressed – but this boy had a younger brother who was noticed by the folks at Teleton (a Mexican charity that provides occupational therapy to children). The younger brother had an unaddressed hearing problem and the Teleton folks saw this younger brother display a level of acumen that was quite interesting to them. They evaluated and tested him and found he had a genius level IQ – and they also ascertained that his hearing ability could be enhanced with a cochlear implant that we addressed once the problem was understood and diagnosed. This younger brother is soaring – he is doing well in school, and he can hear well for the first time in his life. This all happened because he had an ill sibling whose needs we answered. We got a two-fer miracle on that one.

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Author Anne Lamott recently wrote that all we can do in a world like the one we have now is to “do the next right thing.” To help a child, to save their life, to give them a chance is always the right thing to do.  I hope and ask that you do the next right thing by helping the children who live here.  It is kind of micro to make a donation – but for the families and children we help – it is full on macro.