Jun 19Dr. Ken Citron Tribute Fund Annual Fundraiser benefitting Camp Kivita
Dear Campers, Families and Supporters,
This past weekend we were fortunate to celebrate Camp Kivita with the Citron Family and friends at the annual Dr. Ken Citron Tribute Fund Fundraiser benefitting Camp Kivita. For those of you not familiar, the Citron family has been one of greatest supporters since camp started six years ago. The thoughtful and committed support of Jeff Citron has been instrumental in our success, helping drive us towards our state of becoming an independent charitable organization but also giving us the confidence and support needed to succeed. I also wanted to take a few moments and reflect, not only on our ongoing gratitude for having such committed, motivated, and incredible supporters over the years but to share with you some personal reflections and history on how this support came to be.
It was ten years ago when Dr. Ken Citron passed. I remember the time clearly as I was a young graduate student and research fellow working in the heart transplant program at the Hospital for Sick Children and Dr. Citron was a strong, vibrant, well spoken and committed member of the heart transplant team where he worked as our staff psychiatrist (among his other incredible roles in cancer, his nationally and internationally renowned work in the field of HIV, and palliative care). His loss to our team, hospital and community at large was immense and beyond words. What I remember the most about Dr. Citron was that he was a tremendous advocate for the psychosocial well-being of our heart transplant patients. During weekly patient rounds I vividly recall him speaking of how we need to focus on quality of life, to think about how these kids were functioning in school, how to address their challenges, and how we can support them to truly thrive. This was incredibly formative in my thinking about the care of children with chronic illness and transplantation as a young scientist and helped drive my own personal passion and commitment to the study and promotion of quality of life in our kids. The normal and fun experience of camp for our kids became a natural and exciting fit and I believe wholeheartedly that Dr. Citron would be thrilled to see the ongoing success of camp. His legacy lives on both at the hospital and through our work at Camp Kivita.
It is within this context that our leadership and volunteer team want to share with each of you our heartfelt gratitude to the Citron family and all their friends and colleagues who join each year to honor Dr. Citron and who help support our work in ensuring that all kids living with organ failure and transplants are able to attend camp at no cost and focus exclusively on enjoying the gift of life, having new experiences, meeting new friends, and thriving. We are humbled and full of gratitude to each and every one of you for your support year after year.
We are also SO PROUD of our campers who spoke at this event and shared their stories and experiences of what camp means to them. To each of you - Emanuel, Andrew, and Isabella, thank you for speaking so honestly, bravely and beautifully on what camp means to you. You are the reason we are here and your words remind us of why camp matters so much and we are lucky to do the work we do.
Below we share some pictures of the event,
It was ten years ago when Dr. Ken Citron passed. I remember the time clearly as I was a young graduate student and research fellow working in the heart transplant program at the Hospital for Sick Children and Dr. Citron was a strong, vibrant, well spoken and committed member of the heart transplant team where he worked as our staff psychiatrist (among his other incredible roles in cancer, his nationally and internationally renowned work in the field of HIV, and palliative care). His loss to our team, hospital and community at large was immense and beyond words. What I remember the most about Dr. Citron was that he was a tremendous advocate for the psychosocial well-being of our heart transplant patients. During weekly patient rounds I vividly recall him speaking of how we need to focus on quality of life, to think about how these kids were functioning in school, how to address their challenges, and how we can support them to truly thrive. This was incredibly formative in my thinking about the care of children with chronic illness and transplantation as a young scientist and helped drive my own personal passion and commitment to the study and promotion of quality of life in our kids. The normal and fun experience of camp for our kids became a natural and exciting fit and I believe wholeheartedly that Dr. Citron would be thrilled to see the ongoing success of camp. His legacy lives on both at the hospital and through our work at Camp Kivita.
It is within this context that our leadership and volunteer team want to share with each of you our heartfelt gratitude to the Citron family and all their friends and colleagues who join each year to honor Dr. Citron and who help support our work in ensuring that all kids living with organ failure and transplants are able to attend camp at no cost and focus exclusively on enjoying the gift of life, having new experiences, meeting new friends, and thriving. We are humbled and full of gratitude to each and every one of you for your support year after year.
We are also SO PROUD of our campers who spoke at this event and shared their stories and experiences of what camp means to them. To each of you - Emanuel, Andrew, and Isabella, thank you for speaking so honestly, bravely and beautifully on what camp means to you. You are the reason we are here and your words remind us of why camp matters so much and we are lucky to do the work we do.
Below we share some pictures of the event,
Thank you Jeff, and to all the Citron family members and friends for all for your incredible and generous support for Camp Kivita - it means the world to us. The countdown to camp 2014 is on! Yours in camping, Stacey
