We walk to support Keeping the Beat, our annual weekend retreat for Boston Children's Hospital patients with pacemakers or implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs).
This amazing program allows our patients to have a summer-camp-like experience supported by the BCH nurses and doctors who know them best. Since many of our patients are unable to attend mainstream camps, this retreat is incredibly special. We go out of our way to make sure the kids can just be kids, but we are always there to make sure their unique medical, behavioral, and emotional needs are met. For many of our patients, this is their first experience away from home, and it's an opportunity to increase their independence in a safe space.
At Keeping the Beat, kids get to try out new activities and make new friends. Their medical providers get to know them so much better as individuals, and they in turn bond with the nurses and doctors who care for them in a unique way. We find that staff who volunteer once want to go back again and again, and patients start counting down to next year's event on the bus ride home!
Providing so much fun - and such an extensive safety net - comes at a cost, but we never charge patients and families to attend Keeping the Beat. We instead rely on donors to fund this event, and staff to volunteer their time.
Please consider a donation of any amount to help sustain this program. Our goal this year is $2500 - we know we can do it, and we appreciate your help!
For questions about our program, contact keepingthebeat@cardio.chboston.org.
With gratitude,
Team Keeping the Beat