The Intern's Look Back...

It has been exactly a month since I left San Francisco and my work family at Family House. 

I can still remember my first day at Family House...I was so excited, but nervous. I really wanted to make a good impression. Its crazy how fast time flies. Those three months went by in the blink of an eye, but there was time enough for me to see what a special place Family House really is. 

Looking back I remember starting this blog as a fun side project. I wanted a way for Family House's extended family (patients, parents, siblings, volunteers, donors, staff, board members...everyone basically) to be kept up to date about what Family House was doing. It didn't take long for this blog to become so much more than that. I remembering writing one of my first weeks about the Family House spirit, about how inspired I was by the people I worked with, and how blessed/lucky/spoiled I was to be able to work with them. It definitely was the best first job after Undergrad I could have ever asked for.
The people who work at Family House are a special group of individuals.
One of the families I interviewed said, "It is like everyone here is doing exactly the job they were meant to be doing."
I can relate to that grandmother's sentiment as I saw more compassion and heart in the people I worked with then I ever thought humanly possible. They were always willing to go out of their way to help out any family in any way that they could...sometimes even pulling money out of their own pockets to try and help. They took me in as one of their own from day one, and made me feel as though I was at home. We were more then just coworkers... we were a FAMILY.
Its honestly kind of weird how much I have thought about each of them since I left...but when you are part of something great you can't help but miss it I guess.
And Family House really is a special place...it is the type of place that brings anyone and everyone in with a warm embrace. It is there if you need a shoulder to cry on...a joke to make you laugh... or a person to remind you that you are important and loved.

To my Family House work family... I will be forever grateful for the opportunity I had to be a part of the Family...I miss you all everyday...but I find comfort in knowing that you are doing exactly what you were meant to...you are all using your wonderful light to touch the lives of everyone who finds their way to Family House. They are all so lucky to have you.

So Until We Meet Again...I am sending you All of My LOVE!
Miss you all the way beyond the stars and back!

<3 Jill

Laundry Locker

Thank you to Laundry Locker, http://www.laundrylocker.com/, for teaming up with Family House and sharing our mission with the community. We now have our "All-Star" posters up at 147 Valencia Street and 566 Haight Street along with more information about what we do and how you can help!

Saturday Volunteer Day

Every second Saturday of the month Family House hosts a Volunteer Day during which we take care of various projects around the house. Last Saturday was a huge success as we had fourteen wonderful individuals show up to work.   

Bernice, Samantha, and Rebecca, reorganized the linen closets and made sure everything had a place. Victor, Aaron, Gordon, and Adam, helped make the house look new again by painting 4 bedroom door frames. Kristina and Marina, gave Family House that special home feeling by baking banana muffins for all of the families. Julian, Mardoux , Erica, Billy, and Emily, helped keep our communal toys safe for the children by disinfecting them and the communal areas. They also helped completely restock the house of supplies so the families would have everything they could possibly need. We would not be able to provide the level of comfort and support for our families that we do if it was not for volunteers like them. 

So a big THANKS goes out to all of you who helped make our August Volunteer Saturday another huge SUCCESS! 

Keeping Family House Clean

WorkLink, ARC of San Francisco, Toolworks, and Employment Plus, are all organizations that send us a group of smiling volunteers throughout the week to disinfect the 10th Avenue location from top to bottom Monday through Friday. 

When housing individuals who are undergoing treatment for cancer and other serious diseases, keeping a safe and clean house is of the utmost importance. Many of the children staying here have compromised immune systems due to the treatments they are receiving at UCSF, and for those individuals even a simple cold can be extremely dangerous. The individuals who come to disinfect the house day after day, are helping us foster a home that these children can reclaim their play time in. A place where they can forget about the disease that brought them here in the first place.

As if protecting our kids from germs wasn't enough, these volunteer groups are special in their own right. WorkLink, ARC, Toolworks, and Employment Plus are all organizations that help individuals with physical and mental disabilities find jobs and volunteer opportunities in their local community. These individuals come in every morning, with a smile on their face and open arms for a warm embrace. Some of them, like Danny, take public transit switching buses and spending the extra hour or two it takes to cover the distance from their home to ours to come provide this service for our families.

At our Volunteer Appreciation BBQ earlier this summer, I realized just how lucky we were to be graced by their presence. I looked around as Danny and the others danced out back in a circle. Their selfless love, and earnest hope for the good in life radiates from them with every smile and laugh. Their dedication to Family House and to the families who stay here is undeniable, and they make us all want to work a little harder to believe in the BEAUTY of EVERY DAY. 

The Real Deal - Family House makes good TV

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

The Real Deal TV series did a spotlight on Family House a year ago, this is the show as it was aired from Youtube...watch and see just how important and impactful Family House is for the Families who stay here.

Transformational Change - by Greg Kuhn

In an instant a life situation can change. No one ever thinks that a serious illness will touch themselves or their family. One’s perspective on mortality and life can flip in the blink of an eye. At the age of eight I was sitting in the bathtub after a karate lesson. I noticed that I had blood spurts forming all over my body and the bruises on my legs and arms were growing before my eyes. My family and I immediately went to the hospital and found that my blood counts were plummeting. About a month later I was diagnosed with A-Plastic Anemia, a rare auto-immune blood disorder. My body had lost all of the vital blood cells that help run my body. Without platelets I was unable to clot blood and stop bleeding, without red blood cells there was not enough oxygen reaching all the cells of my body, and without white blood cells I could no longer fight infections. At eight years old I was dying.

I was very fortunate to be admitted into UCSF. There at the Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Unit I was treated by an amazing staff of professionals. They found a donor with a perfect match, my sister. Within a year I had a successful transplant and was allowed to return home.

Our family was very lucky that we lived on the peninsula less than thirty minutes from the hospital. The amount of time that my family spent during the course of my illness at UCSF would have been unsustainable had we lived far away.

I returned to UCSF recently to give thanks and be of help in any way I could, it was then that they directed me towards Family House as a place where I could give my time. For these past few months I have been a volunteer at Family House. I can easily say that I am so very grateful to have the pleasure of meeting all of the wonderful guests and staff that provide such an essential service for the some of the patients at UCSF. During such trials that may befall upon a family, the importance of the resources and integrity that Family House offers and stands by cannot be summed up in words. This experience has helped deepen my understanding of others and in turn myself, and is a testament of the transformational change that is possible in this world.

The Work We Do...

The Thinkers

The Thinkers are a musical duo who brought music back to Family House last Friday, when they came to preform for the families at the 10th Avenue location. The dynamic pair first met freshman year of college when they lived together as roommates. Now they are on tour performing at libraries, children's museums, hospitals, and anywhere else where they think their music can bring joy to the children.

Bo and Matt googled "organizations in San Francisco to play for children", and found Family House. They sent us an email to see if they could perform for our kids, and of course we said yes. Their fun loving music

made even the adults giggle and dance last friday. They came fully equipt with suitcases filled with instruments, and their two stuffed dogs Bengy and Missy to add to the fun. They had all of the audience participating by the end of their set, and no one walked a way from the show without a smile on their face.

It was a wonderful treat for the kids at Family House, and it reminded us all how important and powerful music is. Hopefully The Thinkers will be able to grace us with another performance in the future, after how much fun the kids had with this last one.

It truly was a Zoot filled good time!

Their first album called OH ZOOOTY is available for purchase on their website:

http://www.thinkersmusic.com/

Quotes from families about Family House

"It's a place where everyone's going through the same thing. You should see the chiildren coming to Family House after being outside: first thing, they throw off their hats or wigs. being bald in this house is no big deal."

"You make special friends here, and I'll really miss everyone when we go home. I've made some discoveries of my own since I've been here. It's the little everyday things that count in my life. The great big events don't happen very often, and most of them are overated anyway. Fresh flowers on the table, walking on the beach on a sunny day with these children-it's little daily things like this that are important." 

"We were amazed and relieved to find a place like this. The staff was friendly and the facility was nice and clean with all the needs we could think of. There are many occasions when we just stop and think of how much of a blessing it has been to have Family House available."

Donate to Family House

Bobby the Bunny is one of our AllStar volunteers. He collects donations throughout the year, so he can purchase gifts for all the children on Easter...which he hand delivers in his Bunny Suit. Bobby also fundraises year round so we can continue to do the work we do here at Family House. This video is just one of the ways Bobby the Bunny has helped give back to Family House.

Therapy Dogs

Family House invites three different therapy dogs to come once a month and play with the kids. Abby and Bindi graced us with their presence today. Fozzy is the third lovable pouch who balances out the trio, but he normally comes on the first thursday of every month.

Therapy Dogs first started coming to family house in 2009, when the SPCA (Soceity for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) reached out to us. They had heard about us from the Koret Foundation and wanted to offer their Animal Assisted Therapy program to the kids and families who stay here. We brought them in for an interview and walk through to see if this would be an appropraite fit for their services. Immediately after the walk through a couple of the owners signed up with their dogs to volunteer their time. Over time Paws for Healing and 4-Paws heard about us and offered their services as well.

Abby is from SPCA... Bindi comes from Paws for Healing... and Fozzy is from 4-Paws.

For the last three years Family House has been inviting Man's Best Friend to help with the healing process...and we will continue to open our doors to these lovable pups because the smiles and laughter they bring to the kids staying here is...PRICELESS  

  

Thanking Comcast for their amazing donation!

The Feeling of Family House

My coworker Amy Lenz, who is the Volunteer Coordinator at Family House was walking down the stairs to her office in the 10th House when she walked by a family and overheard a mom say to her little boy,

“Ah, were home”. 

After getting back to her office, Amy immediately emailed me this story...because these are the kind of moments that we (the staff) live for here at Family House. We want to be the home away from home you never knew you had. We want to be the community you can come to for support, who will always be waiting with open arms to help shelter you from life's little storms. So for any who find yourself knocking on our door for a place to stay...Just know you are always welcome, and I hope you will feel at home here.

Our Green Thumb

For the last TWO YEARS, Family House has been lucky enough to have a volunteer like Caryn Pierce who has been making our gardens at both houses beautiful! Her genuine care for our families and imaginative touch creates a welcoming environment that makes everyone smile as they pass by!

Making Family House Wishes Come True

Comcast contacted Family House a while back, asking us what they could do to help. So we created an extensive wish list of everything both Houses need to run for about a six month period. The list including things like toilet paper, paper towels, tooth paste, shampoo, conditioner, etc...pretty much all the basic resources an individual needs to live somewhere. 

Comcast took this massive list we gave them and brought it to their employees. Four employees stepped up to oversee the collection of everything. Items were collected throughout Comcast's offices across northern California, and within a months time Comcast's employees had collected over 30,000 items. Then they came down and personally delivered all the items in multiple van loads of generosity.   

Comcast helped make it possible for us to house families for six more months. Their kindness is both inspiring and grately appreciated. It is donations like this one that help remind me how amazing the human heart is.

So from all of us here at Family House, Thank you Comcast and all of you employees who took the time to make a donation and make all our wishes come true. It means more then words can ever express, because it means one more family can find comfort and a home here while dealing with some of the hardest battles of their life.

Volunteer of the Month

Annie Coyne began volunteering for Family House in April of this year. Her passion to help others in a healthcare setting along with her sincere and upbeat personality has truly made her an asset to Family House!

High School Family House Sweethearts

Every week here at Family House we try and plan activities for the Families to distract them from their Hospital Routines. It is only because of our amazing group of volunteers that we are able to do as much as we do for the Families that come here. Without them we would not have been able to grow or help nearly as many families as we have.

We get volunteers of all ages and backgrounds...but one of our most recent Volunteer Days was run by a group of high school students. They came in and made cupcakes and played videos games one afternoon about a week ago. This may not seem like that much but to the kids staying at our 10th Street House in meant the world. It helped them forget about being sick and just be a normal kid again, overloading on sugar and Play Station 2 like all the rest.

This group of High School Students may not know how much their visit meant to us and the families here at Family House... But everytime they show up they open their hearts to these kids and help show us how its the small things that really count in life.

Summer BBQ

Last friday was a beautiful summer day, and here at Family House we celebrated by throwing a BBQ for all of our families. A group of thirteen volunteers from Salesforce came in to help us put on the BBQ their company sponsered. They brought with them a positive attitude ready to be put to work, and a number of fun activities for the kids to play. There was face painting, basketball, bouncy balling creations, a beading station, and a mural project all going on throughout the afternoon. 

It is always hard when planing events for the families with volunteers just because all of our families have such different and busy schedules that are completely dependent on their appointment times and the hospital's availability. This past friday though we had an amazing turn out as multiple families were able to show up to the BBQ and enjoy the Hotdogs and Hamburgers grilled by our Volunteer Grillmaster Paul.

It was a fun filled afternoon in which the volunteers and families got to talk and play, and forget about any of the normal worries that fill their days. We always try to encourage our families and volunteers to intermingle and talk because it helps build a community of support for the families as they are all going through simirlarly difficult and trying times.

Here at Family House we want to be more then just a place to stay, we want to be a becon in the dark, a community anyone can turn to for love and support. Celebrating a Sunny Summer day with a BBQ and friends and family is just one more way Family House tries to go the extra mile.

Monthly Yoga

Once a month Family House has a Volunteer Yoga Instructor, Raissa Bump, come in to teach a class for the families and staff here. Yesterday I had the opportunity to join the class. We set up our yoga mats in the fourth floor living room, and for an hour escaped the "To Do" lists and stresses of the day to enjoy the calming power of Yoga. It was the smallest yoga class I have ever been to, and probably one of the most relaxing. The teacher spent extra time on each one of us insuring we got the most benefit out of each position.

An avid yoga practitioner myself, I strongly believe in the healing power of yoga. After five years of going to yoga classes on and off, I can tell you first hand how beneficial Yoga is for your peace of mind and health. The fact that Family House provides such a service to the families living here and the individuals who work here just goes to show what an amazing Organization they really are. They try to provide every amenity so the people using their facilities can feel not only at home, but at peace as they face some of the hardest battles of their lives.

At the end of your hour of yoga the teacher and students exchange the greeting Namaste, a Sanskrit word that roughly translates: "I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells. I honor the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light, and of peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, We are one" ....such a place exists here at Family House.