Dance Marathon

SUPPORT FROM DANCE MARATHON (DMUM)

Dance Marathon is helping improve the quality of life for the Little Victors at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. The leadership of our incredible students and the generosity of our donors support numerous programs at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and various awareness efforts, impacting children in our local community and beyond. This report highlights several programs that Dance Marathon has volunteered with and raised funds for over the past five years. Thank you for your partnership. You are changing lives.

SOPHIE’S PLACE

Sophie’s Place at Mott will be a dedicated music therapy environment to promote creative expression, safety, and solace for patients and their families throughout the healing process. The Sophie’s Place Studio Manager position has been funded by DMUM’s special project grant funding and has been critical in bringing to life the vision for Sophie’s Place, which is slated to open in 2020. We have put into place the staffing necessary to lead our music therapy team and developed a strong programmatic and operational plan to serve our patients and families in this space.

DREAMS WITH WINGS

Since 2001, DMUM’s support of the Dreams with Wings event has enabled a unique experience for children with physical- and health-related challenges to take an airplane ride, sometimes for the first or only time in their lives. It also allows families to spend a day together where the focus is on fun and respite and not their child’s illness or disability.

MUSIC THERAPY

Thanks to funding from DMUM, the music therapy team is able to continue offering services to patients in the Hematology/Oncology unit and the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. These are two clinical care units where the power of music and the therapeutic benefits it provides are immense, whether through distraction, song writing, or legacy building. These music services impact patients and families in a deep and meaningful way.

CRANIOFACIAL ANOMALIES PROGRAM

Craniofacial Glamour Day is a yearly event each spring that pampers Mott patients with new hairstyles, manicures, pedicures, and a makeover. The craniofacial anomalies program at Mott collaborates with Aveda Institute for the event, which heightens awareness of craniofacial anomalies in our community and helps patients feel special. The event also inspires younger patients in our clinic who can’t wait to participate.

PEDIATRIC PHYSICAL MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION

Support from DMUM makes a daily difference by helping us offer pediatric rehabilitation services to families who would not otherwise be able to fi nd such unique opportunities for their child’s needs. Services include a summer camp experience that accepts all abilities and needs, neuro-rehabilitation support in a fun and adaptive pool setting, and a continually developing and expanding adaptive sports program. Enabling disabled kids to have the same experiences as everyone else is empowering and incredibly important to our community.

TALK AROUND TOWN

Talk Around Town provides children who use a speech generating device with the unique opportunity to form relationships with peers who also use augmentative communication systems. It creates realistic and meaningful communication opportunities to promote improved language learning and communication competence and gives children and families the support they need to be more engaged in their larger community. This program exists solely as a result of DMUM support. Many families do not get insurance coverage for group therapy/community outings and would be prohibited from participation if insurance reimbursement were required.

SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY

Support from DMUM funds alternative and augmentative communication via a new Communication Cart program. This cart enables communication for pediatric patients with complex medical needs who may be scared, in pain, anxious, or unable to use their voice. This year, the department is using funding to purchase iPads with high tech communication boards, access switches, and mounting boards to provide the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and the inpatient Speech-Language Pathology team improved technology, which allows for more access.

STEPS AUTISM PROGRAM

The C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital’s STEPS Autism Treatment Program provides intensive individualized treatment for children with autism in a small group setting with goals of improving a child’s language, social, and cognitive skills. DMUM made the initial launch of the program possible and, through funding and volunteering, has been a catalyst in every step of development. Donor support has directly resulted in increased quality, capacity, staffing, age range of patients, and community impact beyond the health system.

PAWS4PATIENTS

The Paws4Patients Facility Dog Program launched in 2016, and we now have four full-time hospital dogs on our team: Anna, Denver, Bindi, and Fawn. Therapy dogs comfort patients and families through bedside visits and motivate and assist during certain types of therapy and rehabilitation. We also host events such as the Paws4Patients Birthday “Pawty” to give patients, families, faculty, and staff the opportunity to connect with the dogs. Funding from DMUM has been used for veterinary care, grooming, food, and training and helped the program grow.

TRAIL’S EDGE

Trail’s Edge Camp is a summer camp for children who are ventilator-dependent. Funding from DMUM helped us to replace a thirty-year old dock where campers fish and, for the first time ever, launch kayaks. Among other incredible improvements, the camp now has crossbow that is controlled with switches or a joystick for kids who are weak or paralyzed to use and specialized climbing chairs and harnesses that allow campers to go tree climbing.