Connor's House Holiday Cards

We are excited to announce the availability of Connor's House Holiday Cards. Each card contains custom holiday artwork created by children with complex health care needs or life shortening conditions. Order yours today and help spread the Connor's House message to everyone on your holiday card list this year. Click on the banner above to place your order.

Face to Face

Connor's House is going on the road! Tuesday morning Deb and I will be leaving for the UK as part of British Airways Face to Face program. The Face to Face program asked companies to submit essays describing why a face to face meeting, anywhere British Airways flies, would help grow their business.

The model that Connor's House is largely based on originated in Oxford England in 1982 at a place called Helen House. Today there are 42 children's hospice houses across the UK (compare that to 1 in the US).

We submitted an essay, to Face to Face, for Connor's House discussing how the opportunity to visit the children's hospice houses in the UK would provide us with an invaluable opportunity to learn first hand from the pioneers in the field of children's hospice and palliative care services. And surprise surprise, British Airways agreed with us. They selected Connor's House as one the winners and are giving us two round trip tickets to the UK.

Over the next two and a half weeks we will travel across the UK from London to Scotland and back spending time with 10 different children's charities that between them operate 14 children's hospice houses. We will also be meeting with officials from the National Health Service (NHS) to learn about the services offered through the UK health system to children with complex health care needs.

This is an amazing opportunity for us and we can't wait to see what we learn and how it will enhance our thinking and improve our plans for Connor's House. We will be sharing what we learn as we go so stay tuned...

Something had to give

So it has been two weeks since my last blog post. The longest I have gone between posts since I started this little site just about 10 months ago. I really try to update the blog at least three times a week (and if you follow me with any consistency you already know that I am not and this represents merely an ideal not a reality). There is really nothing special about that frequency, just sort of my own goal to keep things current and help me process through the things that are going on around me.

Unfortunately over the past two weeks I have found myself in the perfect storm. My day job at the church has been crazy as we are in the middle of kicking off our new fall schedule, adjusting to two staff departures and launching a new outreach initiative to combat hunger in our community. Connor's House has been equally crazy. We held our fifth blood drive today (thanks as always to all the donors and our partner the Blood Center of NJ) and are simultaneously prepping to launch a new funding campaign and holiday card fundraiser, embark on a tour of UK Children's Hospice Houses and review preliminary pre-qualifications for architects for the house (more on the first three later this week).

I'm not complaining or asking for sympathy, just explaining the gap in posting and I suppose doing a little self justification at the same time. Unfortunately something had to give and the blog was it. Actually it was just one of the things that was put on the back burner but I won't bore you with details about missed workouts, my lawn that needs to be mowed, etc...

I also won't promise that this will be the last long unplanned layoff from the blog (the best boss I ever worked for taught me never to speak in absolutes) but please stay tuned because there's going to be a lot of exciting stuff going on over the next couple of weeks at Connor's House, plus the new hunger initiative I am working on has me pretty excited, and I wouldn't want you to miss any of it ;)

Phil's Plan

A great perspective..

And the winner is....

Thanks to everyone who voted in the Connor's House logo contest. The winner with 66% of the vote is option B. Be on the lookout for updated marketing materials coming in September.

What's the real issue?

The real issue preventing us from moving forward with health care reform in this country is not politics, advanced directives, end of life care, public plans or any of the other myriad of reasons you hear in the news.

Those are all just convenient distractions that allow us to ignore the real issue. The real issue preventing us from moving forward with health care reform is us. You and me. 'Us' you say? How could we possibly be the problem? Simple because fundamentally we are selfish. Our own human nature and society have ingrained in us a "me first" mentality. We may say we care about others and are committed to helping the poor and down-trodden, and many of us do many great things to help those less fortunate than ourselves. But (and this is a BIG BUT) the harsh reality is, we largely only care about other people to the extent that helping them will not require us to either pay more or give up something we feel we have earned or deserve. In other words helping other people is great as long as we don't have to sacrifice too much.

The notion that we can insure the approximately 46 million uninsured Americans without each and every one of us either paying more, or giving up something, is ludicrous.

So there is the real issue. Are you willing to pay more so someone without the ability to pay can go to the doctor? Are you willing to forgo an elective procedure so your neighbor can receive preventative care?

What are you willing to give up, or pay more for, so 46 million Americans can have health insurance?

Help Connor's House choose a logo

Help Connor's House choose a logo to use on our new marketing materials. VOTE HERE.