Children who receive treatment for cancer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston are receiving a special treat while construction goes on outside. Children write their names on sheets of paper and tape them to the window. Then ironworkers erecting the new Yawkey Center for Cancer Care paint the names on steel beams and hoist them into place.
A similar project was carried out in 1996 when the Smith Research Laboratories were built. A movie was made at that time to raise money for The Jimmy Fund.
Link to story. Link to photo gallery. -via Metafilter
See a video from the earlier project, but have your hankie ready. Link
(image credit: David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)
The building's steel skeleton is now a brightly colored, seven-story monument to scores of children receiving treatment at the clinic - Lia, Alex, and Sam; Taylor, Izzy, and Danny. For the young cancer patients, who press their noses to the glass to watch new names added every day, the steel and spray-paint tribute has given them a few moments of joy and a towering symbol of hope.
A similar project was carried out in 1996 when the Smith Research Laboratories were built. A movie was made at that time to raise money for The Jimmy Fund.
Yesterday, crawling on their stomachs in the bitter cold and whipping winds, the ironworkers looked down at the latest batch of names posted in the walkway window. Looking up at them were Kristen and her sisters, Cathryn, 5, and Hannah, 3, who have been accompanying her to chemotherapy. They pointed as the ironworkers painted the girls' names onto the side of a 4-ton I-beam and hoisted it on to the seventh floor.
"She'll always be a piece of this building, which is a good feeling to have," Elizabeth Hoenshell said, holding Kristen. "They don't have to do this, the guys. They could just do their job and do a good job at it and give us a building that we can get treatment at, but they go the extra step and that's huge."
Link to story. Link to photo gallery. -via Metafilter
See a video from the earlier project, but have your hankie ready. Link
(image credit: David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)
This is absolutely awesome.
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Aww, that's one of the best "feel good" stories I've seen in ages ... people are awesome sometimes =)
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That's a pretty cool reworking of a tradition that goes back a long long time. Shipwrights used to put a gold coin under the mast of a newly built ship for good luck. Framers used to all sign one of the timbers of a new house or barn that was built a century ago. I'm sure there are other examples as well.
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My wife is recovering from breast cancer and all the different treatments involved. She just finished the "final" stage of reconstruction. I think this is a great idea. Congratulations to the people doing it.
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Oh, yes, I'm from the Boston area and every summer for years they play that video before movies and then people go around and collect donations. Seriously, it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.
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Well, that brought me to tears. Good tears. Thanks, great item.
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i first read the title as "Ironworkers Immobilize Kids". that would have been a *completely* different story. This one's better.
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I live in the Boston area as well and I remember being made to cry before every movie. But you gotta love "tough" guys with a soft squishy center.
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