We understand that many hospitals are relying on Gabe’s Chemo Duck Program to provide Chemo Ducks to the children at their hospital. While we do our very best to provide as many Chemo Ducks as possible at no cost, it is impossible to keep up with the demand. We are committed to providing huggable hope to children living with cancer. By working together, we can ensure that every child you care for receives their very own Chemo Duck companion and has some comfort during what can be a very challenging time for families. We look forward to strengthening our relationship with you and to finding creative ways to grow your program and connect you with potential donors.
Please see the suggestions listed below and consider how we can make the most out of Gabe’s Chemo Duck Program at your hospital:
Assist all Chemo Duck patients and families with an introduction to the program and online registration
Identify appropriate organizations, businesses and individuals for potential sponsorship opportunities
During cancer treatment, a child’s appetite is so intermittent and unpredictable that it seems like food and eating become a minefield for parents to navigate. For the next few months, we are partnering with Melissa Sharp from Another Lunch to offer options and ideas to families living with this challenge. Her flair for nutrition and making food fun makes her the perfect fit for the series. Although the collaboration was conceived to assist children living with cancer, these ideas and recipes translate to any number of situations and illnesses that affect appetite. The topics for the series will include how to best add calories, encourage eating, reduce nausea, and ease sore mouths.
Adding Calories
My son, Gabe, was only 12 months old when he was diagnosed with cancer. At that time, experience led the surgeons to think they should implant a gastric feeding tube during his chemotherapy port surgery. The doctors assumed that since he was so young he would be unable to keep his weight stable without nutritional supplements. Gabe’s oncologist decided that it was better to “wait and see” what happened with his weight and nourishment. We, Gabe’s parents, found ways to add calories to his food whenever he felt like eating and he did manage to maintain his weight throughout treatment. These ideas can be used help supplement the diets of any child who struggles to gain weight or needs to supplement their diet. – Lu Sipos
Use full-fat dairy products: calorie-rich whole milk as a beverage and as an ingredient when making meals such as cereal, macaroni and cheese, pudding, etc.
Add dry milk powder to mashed potatoes, pancake batter, etc.
Drizzle extra virgin olive oil on pasta and noodle dishes
Add extra noodles to soups
Offer French Toast instead of plain bread or toast and add butter
Frying foods and breading before frying adds a lot of needed calories
Create kid-approved smoothies by blending fruits with whole milk. Add honey and an instant breakfast mix for added calories and sweetness. Adding frozen yogurt or ice cream punches up the calorie content even more.
Spread peanut butter on crackers and use as a dip for fruits and veggies. For a super boost of calories make Super Peanut Butter (recipe below) in lieu of regular peanut butter.
Super Peanut Butter Recipe Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of dried milk powder
1 tablespoon of honey
1 teaspoon of water5 tablespoon of peanut butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Directions:
Combine dry milk, water, vanilla in a small bowl and stir until moistened.
Add honey and peanut butter. Mix until well combined.
Mixture can be stored in the refrigerator, but will be difficult to spread when cold.
Bring Super Peanut Butter to room temperature for easy spreading.
Judy Shaw hardly knows how to sit still. The recent retiree from a quarter of century tenure at GreyStone Power Corporation in Douglasville, GA always had a community service project on hand when she was working. But when her granddaughter was diagnosed with cancer a few years back, Shaw’s community service actions fell into step with the work of Gabe’s Chemo Duck Program and she hasn’t looked back since.
“It started when one of the two annual run/walk events GreyStone had always participated in – didn’t happen,” explained Shaw. “My daughter-in-law had just shared Lu and Gabe’s story with me and we saw the Chemo Duck was planning a Mall Waddle event at CBL malls. GreyStone decided to do the walk for the Chemo Duck Program, and even made my granddaughter, Ashley, the matron for the walk. Lu shipped her a duck as soon as she heard about our story, and Ashley was able to carry it through the walk,”
Ashley Shaw had been diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma when she was just 5 years old. She hadn’t known about Chemo Duck during her treatments, which spanned a year, but Ashley’s mother, Elaine, found Gabe’s story online after Ashley had finished her treatments. The family was amazed and heartened by Gabe’s story, which was quite similar to Ashley’s.
“My daughter-in-law had called and told me I had to read Gabe’s story,” continued Shaw. “We saw that Gabe was doing well, and that was such good news. Our family really related to the Sipos family in our personal experience with childhood cancer. After showing Lu’s video and reading her story about Chemo Duck, GreyStone employees knew we wanted to help,”
The 2010 Mall Waddle was a great success and the employee group held similar events during the next two years.
When another GreyStone employee’s son was getting chemotherapy treatments for a rare disorder, Judy shared the story with Lu and the Chemo Duck Program.
“Lu was kind enough to immediately box up a Chemo Duck and it send to me for him,” said Shaw. “He loves his Chemo Duck and takes him along for each visit to the hospital. They even showed me a video of him playing with the duck on the way to the hospital. What a wonderful friend Chemo Duck can be for children who are faced with an unknown journey ahead.”
The most important GreyStone fundraiser for Chemo Duck turned out to be the one Shaw didn’t even know about.
When they were preparing for Shaw’s retirement, a fellow employee at GreyStone asked if anyone wanted to purchase a Chemo Duck in my honor. They raised $1100! There were little yellow rubber ducks in a bowl at the party representing the 44 ducks that were purchased in her honor. “That was the best present they could have given me,” Shaw said.
The past three years GreyStone employees have raised more than $11,000 for Gabe’s Chemo Duck Program and have been able to supply two area pediatric cancer programs with enough ducks for the children they serve. Ashley completed her last treatment on New Year’s Eve in 2008 (also the eve of Gabe Sipos’s birthday). Now Ashley is doing well and enjoying fourth grade.
On Saturday, January 5, Gabe’s Chemo Duck Program premiered the “Making Friends with Chemo Duck”
cartoon at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. The cartoon was shown in the Children’s Hospital Theater and to the kids receiving in-patient care. The event, presented by BL Harbert International, was free and featured red carpet makeovers, pictures, celebrity goody bags, snacks and more! The cartoon was a big hit and it will soon be available On Demand through EZTV for all patients at Vanderbilt’s Children’s Hospital to view.
A portion of the cartoon has been available on YouTube for two years. It has been viewed more than 11,000 times. The additional final four minutes of
educational material will allow us to teach thousands of children about chemotherapy in a child-friendly, non-threatening manner. The video sheds light on some of the struggles children go through and reiterates the fact that they haven’t done anything wrong and that they are still the same kid on the inside. Thecartoon appeals to children of all ages and helps them understand that they are not alone.
The production of the cartoon took three years to create and has been a true labor of love. We are so grateful to everyone who took part in the production of the cartoon, for the generous sponsorships and for the helpful on-site management of the event. It’s a huge step toward our goal of reaching out to children with cancer and helping to provide comfort, education and hope during a very challenging time.
Leave it to a group of big-hearted Spring Hill teenagers to come up with a project that involves both fuzzy yellow ducks and chocolate on a stick.
Last September, Makenzie Fancher, Nikki Vaughen, Niki Hutchinson, Olivia Chastain, Kelli Messmer and Carly Smith were given a challenge by the Spring Hill Rotary Club. They had to find a way to use just five dollars each to make a meaningful contribution to their community. The girls, all tenth graders at Summit High School, decided to pool their cash and chose cancer as the cause they would work to support.
“But then we decided to somehow make it smaller, so first we thought how about kids with cancer? Then we wanted to support something local so we looked online and that’s when we found Chemo Duck, right here in Spring Hill,” said Makenzie
The girls were even more thrilled to discover the founder of the Chemo Duck program, Gabe Sipos, was a student at nearby Allendale Elementary School, where Makenzie’s mom is the PTO president. It just felt right.
The six friends decided they would make chocolate lollipops and sell them for a dollar. Soon the Fancher kitchen became a miniature version of Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory and the girls were cranking out dozens of pops in all different shapes and shades.
“We had white chocolate and dark, we made duck pops, mustache pops, stars and hearts. Everyone loved them,” said Makenzie.
Over the next several weeks the girls sold the pops in their neighborhood, took them to football games and their dance studio. By the time the Rotary Club was ready to convert their earnings into a check for Gabe’s My Heart, Inc., the girls had raised $550.
On November 16, the group surprised Gabe with a check at his school. Now 18 Chemo Ducks are on their way to the pediatric cancer patients at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
Makenzie says it was very gratifying to see the surprised expression on the faces of the Rotarians when they learned they’d increased their money more then tenfold, but it was even better getting to meet Gabe, and seeing how excited he was about the donation.
“I hope we show what teens can do. I want people to learn from us that even though you are young you can make a difference and change a life, not just in something small. You can set your mind to it and can change many people’s lives,” Makenzie said.
“I am very proud of all six of them. This was their own project from start to finish. They took their 30 dollars and bought chocolate and cellophane,” said Gina “And they even cleaned up the kitchen themselves.”
Gabe’s Chemo Duck Program recently received its first grant from the Jackson National Community Fund (JNCF). The award will allow the program to complete the second installment of the Chemo Duck Cartoon.
“We are extremely grateful that Jackson Insurances sees the value in educating children with cancer,” said Lu Sipos. “We look forward to finding new ways to become more engaged with Jackson Insurance and their volunteer program.”
Jackson National Life Insurance, founded in 1961, is one of the nation’s largest insurance companies. Through the JNCF, Jackson and its employees invest in the communities in which they live.
With corporate headquarters in Lansing, Michigan, Jackson also has offices in Denver, Chicago and Nashville.
According to Corinne Bergeron, corporate social responsibility manger for Jackson Insurance in Nashville, the company’s donations and sponsorships are directed to organizations, programs and events dedicated to enhancing the lives of children and the elderly.
“The Chemo Duck program was one of 20 applications our executive committee reviewed,” said Bergeron. “With a focus of helping children confronting a disease like cancer, any role our company could play to support them was the main driver in awarding the grant.
“It was wonderful to meet Gabe and his family. He is truly an outstanding spokesperson for the program.”
The $5,000 grant is one example of how Jackson Insurance is working to participate in projects and initiatives that strengthen the communities in which they work and serve, said Bergeron.
Sipos said she is looking forward to other ways to partner with the company in hopes of bringing Chemo Ducks to patients in the areas the insurance company has a presence.
It is difficult for children to wrap their head around fractions, conjunctions and how the gravity keeps us on the ground. We can only imagine how difficult it must be for a child to wrap their head around being diagnosed with cancer.
At the core of Gabe’s Chemo Duck Program, is a mission to ease that confusion for children and to provide medically sound resources to help them relate to what is happening to their bodies and lives. It is this exact desire to help her own son that inspired Lu Sipos to create the very first Chemo Duck for her son, Gabe.
Books, cartoons and paper dolls have all been incorporated into the therapeutic tools used to help prepare children for the various treatments they will experience while battling cancer. Then Lu heard a podcast featuring an educational hip-hop song created by a group called Flocabulary.
Lu approached the New York-based company about creating a cartoon promoting self-esteem for children living with cancer. Flocabulary typically works within the educational field and has videos in more than 15,000 schools across the country. When they learned about Chemo Duck they were immediately sold on the idea. The two companies hope the result of their collaboration will motivate cancer patients to not give up on their identity and will-power and boost their self-esteem.
“We had never done anything with the healthcare industry, so this was a chance to do something impactful and help kids who are struggling with cancer treatments,” says Alex Rappaport, founder and CEO of Flocabulary. “If we put a smile on just one kid’s face, then we have done our part.”
Flocabulary was started in 2004 by Alex Rappaport and Blake Harrison, the same year that Lu created Chemo Duck. The online platform delivers educational hip-hop songs and videos to students in grades K-12. It is now used in more than 15,000 schools, reaching 5 million students weekly.
“Our mission is to motivate kids and help them reach their full academic potential, not only by raising test scores but by fostering a love of learning in every child,” said Alex Rappaport, CEO of Flocabulary.
“We were touched by Gabe’s story, and the idea of Chemo Duck,” he said. “We had never done anything with health or medicine, so this was a chance to do something really positive and help kids who are struggling with cancer treatment.
“We saw this as a natural extension of our mission and if we put a smile on just one kid’s face, then we have helped do our part.”
Flocabulary works with a team of artists from around the country to perform its tunes. Atlanta resident, Dillon Maurer performs the rap “I’m Still Me” for Chemo Duck. Rappaport said Dillon was able to bring some personal passion to the song.
“Not only did he understand the learning objectives,” said Rappaport, “this project was personal to him.”
Maurer lost a childhood friend to cancer.
The use of music was important to Sipos because of the research done about the power of the healing power of music. Studies have shown that using music in medical settings can help lower blood pressure, reduce stress and assist with pain management.
“Music can be the venue for talking about feelings,” said Sipos. “It’s a perfect way for children to express how they feel, especially when it is difficult for them to find the words.”
Sipos said the use of “autobiographical” songs, which bring to mind a certain memory, have proven to boost a person’s ability to recall information.
According to “Music-Memory Connection Found in Brain” on the LiveScience website, Petr Janata, a cognitive neuroscientist at University of California-Davis identified the area in the brain used to remember such songs.
“What seems to happen is that a piece of familiar music serves as a soundtrack for a mental movie that starts playing in our head,” stated Janata in 2009. “It calls back memories of a particular person or place…”
His report showed that the medial prefrontal cortex became more active when subjects heard autobiographical songs, compared to listening to songs unconnected with their lives.
Gabe’s Chemo Duck Program is committed to ensuring that all Chemo Duck products are safe for kids to use. Our products are made in compliance with all U.S. product safety guidelines as published by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). All of our toys are independently safety tested and safety reports are available.
Our Chemo Duck manufacturer is focused on product safety and compliance. All products are safe for suggested ages. Products are made from all new materials, nylex fabric, no lead content, polyester stuffing, plastic bean filling, and the inks used are non-toxic.
Throughout the entire manufacturing process of every single Chemo Duck, stringent safety measures are taken to ensure every child provided with huggable hope is protected from any safety issues.
When Taegan Strain was diagnosed in 2002, the enterprise known as Gabe’s My Heart was not yet organized. There were not hundreds of cute chemo ducks available for children diagnosed with cancer.
At the time, there was only one Chemo Duck and it belonged to Gabe Sipos.
“Taegan and Gabe and another patient would all play together during clinic,” said Tammy Strain, Taegan’s mom. “She saw Gabe’s duck and she wanted one.
“Well Lu made her a little bunny that was all girly,” said Strain. “She put a straw hat on it and gave it a feeding tube. And Taegan played with it all the time. Every time she would have something done, she would doctor on her bunny.
“She used bunny to show her to friends and to explain to them what was happening with her.”
Strain said her daughter never named her bunny, but cherishes it and has put it up for safe keeping.
A year ago she received a Chemo Duck and has used it to help raise money for Gabe’s My Heart. This summer, during a mission trip to New York, Taegan met a family with a 6-year-old who had been diagnosed with the same form of cancer as Taegan. She got their contact information so that he too could enjoy his very own Chemo Duck.
“During that time she was in treatment, she felt like everything was out of control,” said Strain. “I think it helped her work through what was going on with her. Having this animal, it was a way she could gain back some control. When kids are sick like that, everyone gives stuffed animals.”
“But none of them look like they do. Chemo Duck is like them and it’s a comfort to have a stuffed animal going through the same illness.”
Taegan was 3 years old when she was diagnosed with ALL. She is now a 7th grader at Franklin Simpson Middle School in Franklin, Kentucky.
Every year, the members of the Lawrenceburg County Classic Car Club hold a car show. And each year, a charity benefits from the proceeds.
Chemo Duck was one of the lucky groups thanks to Vern Green, vice president of the club. When it came time to talk about what charity would be the recipient of the car show’s profits, Green packed up a couple of ducks, gathered some literature and hauled them to a club meeting.
He was interested in sharing what he had learned about Chemo Duck. His daughter, Jennifer, worked at the Monroe Carell Jr Children’s Hospital where Gabe Sipos received his cancer treatments. After learning the story behind Chemo Duck and how the program helped children fighting cancer, he wanted to see if his club could help.
“It was really an eye opener for our organization,” said Green. “The majority of the folks in the club had never heard of Chemo Duck. They were happy to hear about the program and how it helped the kids cope.”
The annual car show, now in its 34th year, attracted 100 entries of classic and collectible cars, trucks and motorcycles.
He asked representatives of Chemo Duck to set up a table during the show to help educate the car aficionados about the purpose of the stuffed animals. The club donated $2000.
“We did pretty good,” said Green. “With what we donated, the folks with Chemo Duck said they will be able to buy and send out a few ducks and then some.
“It was nice to help a local charity that helps kids from all around the country.”
During cancer treatment, a child’s appetite is so intermittent and unpredictable that it seems like food and eating become a minefield for parents to navigate. For the next few months, we are partnering with Melissa Sharp from Another Lunch to offer options and ideas to families living with this challenge. Her flair for nutrition and making food fun makes her the perfect fit for the series. Although the collaboration was conceived to assist children living with cancer, these ideas and recipes translate to any number of situations and illnesses that affect appetite. The topics for the series will include how to best add calories, encourage eating, reduce nausea, and ease sore mouths.
