First, the Dragonfly Foundation of Cincinnati was formed by Christine & Jim Neitzke after their 10 year old son was diagnosed with blood cancer and found little support for families to deal with the diagnosis, navigating the system, and more importantly, the families practical needs. Spokesperson Caroline Degroft explains how the non-profit supports pediatric cancer patients and their families throughout their journey.
Then, World Teen Mental Wellness Day is a nationwide event to educate high school students about the available resources and destigmatize the need for emotional help. The Joe Burrow Foundation is joining with Bethesda, Inc. to fund $500 grants to every high school in the tri-state who applies for it, to create an awareness program for their students and observe the day March 2, 2024.
Click here for Dragonfly Foundation in Cincinnati.
Click here for high school grant application.
Click here for Joe Burrow Foundation link to World Teen Mental Wellness Day info.
Then, World Teen Mental Wellness Day is a nationwide event to educate high school students about the available resources and destigmatize the need for emotional help. The Joe Burrow Foundation is joining with Bethesda, Inc. to fund $500 grants to every high school in the tri-state who applies for it, to create an awareness program for their students and observe the day March 2, 2024.
Click here for Dragonfly Foundation in Cincinnati.
Click here for high school grant application.
Click here for Joe Burrow Foundation link to World Teen Mental Wellness Day info.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
This week on iHeart Citizen. Todaywe're talking about help for families dealing with
childhood cancer. A local organization isdoing amazing work for pediatric cancer patients and
their families, The Dragonfly Foundation.Okay, at Dragonfly looked up the meaning
of dragonfly and they symbolized strength,courage, and joy, and she was
(00:22):
like, that is exactly what Iwant our mission to be. The Dragonfly
Foundation started by Christine and Jim Nitskiafter their ten year old son was diagnosed
with blood cancer and they were thrustinto a world with little support for the
child or for the family. Todayyou'll hear from Carolyn Degrut from the Dragonfly
Foundation how the Cincinnati nonprofit helps thousandsof children in our region and their families
(00:46):
with the emotional, practical, andrelational challenges that these families face, so
they know they are not going throughthis pediatric cancer alone. And later we're
teaming up with a Burrow Foundation becausehe recognizes how important youth mental health is.
It's a big investment in high schoolsin the Tri State to promote world
(01:07):
teen mental wellness. My guest isJill Miller, President and CEO of Bethesda,
Inc. With important details on theircollaboration with the Joe Burrow Foundation to
show teams the way for help andthe emotional support that they need. Now
on iHeart Sinsey with Sandy Collins.Glad to have you here today. We've
got a lot of good information topass along to you this show for the
(01:29):
community to find those resources to solvemany of the issues we face well.
Today we begin with a local nonprofitorganization, the Dragonfly Foundation, which directly
helps pediatric cancer patients here in theTri State and their families with community support
and help where they need it allthrough the journey. My guest is the
(01:52):
director of Communications and Marketing at theDragonfly Foundation in Cincinnati. Caroline de Grout
tell me a little bit. Firstof all, how you came to the
Dragonfly Foundation. Yeah, so Icame back in twenty nineteen. I was
in college at the University of Dayton, was majoring in communication, had a
(02:13):
minor in social work. My momwas a medical social worker, so I
always kind of had that in theback of my head, maybe something I
wanted to do like most people.Unfortunately, I've had a lot of cancer
affect my life. Knew about Dragonfly. My mom works with Dragonfly in her
day to day job and was luckyenough to be offered an internship here.
(02:35):
So I was on the patient sideof things the summer of twenty nineteen doing
all of our patient gifting patient events. Fell in love with the mission,
with our patients, with the team, and then it was lucky enough to
come on full time when I graduatedcollege. So I came on a little
over a year and a half agoas the community relations manager doing all of
(02:57):
our social media, newsletter all thatfun stuff events, and then within the
past six months have transitioned into theDirector of Communications and Marketing and do more
of our public media billboards magazines stilldo the social media of the newsletters,
but of course still do it allbecause no matter what I'm doing, whether
(03:20):
it's an Excel sheet or a patientevent, I'm benefiting our patients and love
our mission the Dragonfly mission. Firstof all, Dragonfly is known to some
people the symbolism of it. Tellme about the symbolism of the Dragonfly Foundation,
and then tell us about your missionfor pediatric cancer. Yeah, absolutely
so. Our founder Christine Knightsky,after your cancer had struck their family and
(03:45):
they had gone through their journey,knew that she wanted to do something to
give back to Cincinnati Children's and shewanted our logo to be simple and clean,
and she wanted it to be aneasy name that people knew, but
she didn't necessarily want cancer in thename. So she started throwing out different
ideas she was thinking of doing,like the giving Tree or different insects or
bugs, and talked to her son, Matt, who went through treatment,
(04:11):
and she threw out a few ideasto him and he was like, Mom,
those are terrible, and he said, what about the Dragonfly Foundation And
she's like, of course, myteenage son thinks my ideas are terrible,
and was like, okay, adragon fly. Looked up the meaning of
dragonfly and they symbolized strength, courage, and joy, and she was like,
(04:31):
that is exactly what I want ourmission to be. So it just
worked, and that is our mission. Our mission is to provide strength,
courage and joy to pediatric cancer patientsand their families and whatever that looks like,
whether that's an event, community buildingresources to help them with groceries or
urgent needs. And we started withsmall things like Plato and happy meals being
(04:54):
delivered to the hospital, and nowwe have events with over three hundred patients
and families and really build a networkfor these families so that they don't feel
so alone throughout this journey, andtry and plug in those resources that the
medical staff can't provide and fill thatgap emotionally and keep the memories going,
keep life going, all while supportingthe entire family. Because Christine has two
(05:18):
sons, one who went through ajourney and the other who was there supporting
his brother and his family. Andunfortunately, the case just is that a
lot of the attention is on thepatient, and Christine never wants other siblings,
cousins, aunts, uncles, whoeverit is in the family to feel
excluded from the journey. Earnthick theyare not supported. So it's really really
(05:42):
important to us that we support theentire family. Let's do a little deeper
dive into actual services, because that'swhat makes you unique at the Dragonfly Foundation.
So you're talking about everything from introducingpeople to each other to supporting the
patient when they get to the hospital, supporting the parentrance. What are some
of the tangible things that the averagelistener may not realize you can do for
(06:05):
a pediatric cancer patient. Yeah,So our first point of contact and first
introduction to families is a big bluecare bag. Social work brings that in
normally on day one of diagnosis,and that bag is full of everything that
the staff Children's has told us andpatients and families have told us. When
(06:27):
the doctor told us either you're stayinghere your child has cancer, or go
to the hospital with child has cancer, we didn't think to grab. So
it's toilet choose to get you throughthose first couple of weeks. It's a
water bottle of flashlights you can getup in the middle of the night with
out turning on all the lights.It's especially curated notebook and patient log to
keep all of your doctor's appointments,notes, medication, and it's all kinds
(06:50):
of stuff that you don't think tograb. And it's also our application in
there, and it's super simple.It's just a name, diagnosis, and
age. From there, the socialwork team sends that to us, we
immediately call the family, get toknow them, welcome them to Dragonfly,
and gift the patient and siblings rightthen and there. Also in there we
(07:14):
have our Dragonfly Way, which iskind of our magazine, sharing different stories,
explaining more about what we do andkind of helping these families through those
first few weeks. Of course,it's a family that we never want anyone
to have to join, but we'rereally fortunate that we're here and we're thankful
to be able to support these families. So that's kind of our biggest program
(07:38):
that we're most known for is ourblue bags and then from there, whatever
the journey looks like, whether it'smom and dad need help with gas money,
we do tons of gas gift cardsto help mom and dad get to
and from the hospital or whoever caregiveris. We have our I Am still
Me hair loss program, so ina patient's gift, their first Innish gift
(08:00):
is a T shirt that says Iam Stoney. There's also a book that
we have, our I Am StoneMeat Book, and it's all different patient
stories of them before, during,and after their hair lost throughout treatment and
losing hair is a big part ofa lot of kids treatment and it's hair
is a big identity for so manypeople, and as a child losing your
(08:22):
hair and not knowing what's going on, and especially your peers not knowing what's
going on. That I Am StoneMeat program is there to kind of normalize
that process to help parents, teachers, classmates, everybody kind of understand what's
going on and to ensure the childthat they're still them. Cancer doesn't define
(08:43):
them, their hair doesn't define them. So that's another one of our really
cool programs that Marty Brenneman when heshaved his head on the Great American Ballpark
field, he was wearing one ofthose I Am Stoney t shirts. So
that's kind of a staple that alot of people recognize. Tell me about
the Dragonfly House that you have purchasedwhat five years ago or so near Cincinnati
(09:07):
Children's The Hawk? Is it HeineHouse? Hawk? Heine House? Yeah?
It was. Yeah, So youhad this big, beautiful old home,
did a multimillion dollar renovation. Whereare you at now in that process?
Yeah, So we bought this houseright before COVID hit that summer of
(09:28):
twenty nineteen. Actually, when Istarted as an intern with Dragonfly, we
moved into this house and we've beenrenovating ever since. Of course, the
pandemic shut us down for a whilewith renovations and everything. But this main
house we call the landing because everydragonfly needs a place to land. So
the upstairs is all of our offices, administrative stuff, nothing fun, our
(09:50):
fancy, and the first floor isa space for our families to come and
hang out. We used to bea mason and we moved to this location
so that we're just two or threeblocks from Children's. We can get to
our patients quickly and our patients canget to us quickly as well. Behind
the landing is what's called the carriagehouse, and we are full blown renovations
(10:15):
on that and we will open inthe spring, and that carriage house is
essentially a giant playhouse for our kids. The first floor we'll have a little
bit of programming space for us tohave volunteers come in and help us with
things, but it's also going tohave a library, a game room,
a kitchen area, and it's reallyjust a place for our families to come
(10:35):
get out of the hospital for alittle while. If they've a long day
of appointments and they have an hourbreak in between, instead of sitting in
the hospital room, they could comehere, hang out, feel normal,
feel like they're at home. Butit's also going to be a place for
kids who are immune compromised to comehave a safe space to play with other
kids, to be normal to beout of the hospital or out of their
(10:58):
home, but still be in thatsafe environment. So renovations will be done
middle of the spring, and wecan't wait to have that open so that
our patients and families can be backhere and be together and living their normal
lives. I'm guessing a lot ofthe families might stay at the Ronald McDonald
House. Yeah, so we don'tdo any overnight stays here at Dragonfly,
(11:22):
but several of our patients are stayingat the Ronald McDonald House again, so
thankful to have that close by.That's another great option for those families who
are staying there, But we're herefor the families who even just live an
hour away but live too close tostay at the ron So, of course
were McDonald's families can come, anyof our patients can come and hang out.
(11:45):
So we're super duper excited to beable to offer this again to our
families because it's something we did allthe time at our old space, but
since we've been here, it's kindof been put on pause. Your website's
really well done. It shows howpeople in certain areas can donate certain types
of gifts, from gift cards toevent tickets, And I love the emphasis
(12:11):
on even if it's least minute tickets, we can take them and we can
get them to the people because youhave you have an emergency way of doing
that. So let's say somebody has, you know, four tickets to a
ball game and they want to donatethem to you, and the game is
that night. How would that howwould that end up being implemented? Yeah,
for sure, It's as easy asjust calling our main number here are
(12:35):
emailing us. All of that informationis on our website, and then we
have a patient portal and a privatepatient Facebook group. Our patient program director,
Hannah's incredible. She is super ontop of everything. She gets that
information out to our parents immediately andif anyone's available to go it's thankfully everything
(12:56):
is now digital ticket wise, sodoing those of transfers is super easy.
It's just sending the tickets to Hannahand then Hannah is sending them to the
patient. So yeah, I meanall the time we are last minute getting
ticket donations, which we're so sograteful for to give those families those experiences
(13:16):
in those moments of joy. Alot of times cancer can bring on huge
financial struggles, so sometimes those additionalmemories are hard to make, so it's
incredible to give that to our families. And then we also have our own
suite at Heritage Bank Center, andthat's great, not only because then we
can offer for our families to goto every event that they offer, but
(13:37):
it's also a little bit safer forour families who are in active treatment and
need to be away from a bigcrowd. So that sweet is a really
special place for us to be ableto send patients who are immune compromised at
their time and treatment to still goand do those normal fun things. So
you have corporate sponsorships obviously, butthen for the average list, what sorts
(14:01):
of things can they donate to theDragonfly Foundation. Yeah, I mean I
always say gift cards. Gift cardsis our biggest thing, whether it's a
Visa gift card and Amazon gift card. We're always giving out gas gift cards,
Kroger, Walmart, Target, justkind of for those basic necessities.
(14:22):
We love to be able to givethe gift cards because there's not a lot
of control throughout treatment that these familiescan have. You're given a treatment plan
and that's kind of what you've gotto follow, so to be able to
give a gift card and allow ourfamilies to do their normal grocery shopping or
buy whatever they want for their childrenis really important to us. So those
(14:43):
gift cards are always always huge andsuper helpful. And then the other big
thing is those tickets or experiences forour families to offer them. And of
course, being in December, alot of folks are looking for that tax
deductible donation that they need to makebefore the end of the year. And
as a five oh one C three, the Dragonfly Foundation would work. So
(15:05):
you know, plunk down a couplethousand dollars in gift cards. You can
just log right there on the websiteand take care of all of that right
there, or call the organization.You have hundreds of fundraisers throughout the year,
little partnerships throughout the area. Inoticed one of my favorite places,
Papa John's. They're offering twenty percentoff your entire order when you use the
(15:28):
promo code Dragonfly twenty and then ontop of that they will donate a dollar
for every order. So you gotholiday pizza parties coming up Papa John's,
and that goes all the way throughthe end of December. Is that right,
Yes, that's correct. Yep,goes all the way through the end
of the year. We're so sothankful for our partnership with Papa John's.
There incredible and we definitely need ourshare fair share of Papa Johns around here.
(15:52):
Yes, ma'am. Of course theBengals are playing, you know,
this weekend. I think they playyesterday on a Saturday. But you've still
got some games coming up, Soorder those Papa John's and put the promo
code in there, Dragonfly twenty.They'll give you twenty percent off your order
and then donate a dollar to theDragonfly Foundation. Is there anything else,
(16:15):
Caroline, that we need to talkabout before we take off? Really?
I mean, we just sharing ourmission, letting other people know what we're
doing, and just the support ofour community means obviously so much to us
as a foundation. But we alsodo serve so many local patients those of
(16:36):
course patients from all over the country, all over the world that we serve
at Sin Sandy Children's. But thoselittle fundraisers or the school fundrais, those
are the restaurants. It's so coolfor our patients and families to see.
So just I always try and saythank you to them publicly, because to
know that your community has your backwhen you're going through this means the world
to our families. Can you giveme a number, I'm trying to imagine
(17:02):
how many children have cancer in thisarea. Do you have a number or
like an average or normal patient load? Yeah. So since twenty ten when
we started, we've served over sevenfour hundred patients and families, and that's
just the families that are being treatedat Cincinnati Children's Hospital. I wish that
(17:26):
number would go down. I wishthat we didn't get so many patient applications,
but it really varies. Of course. Right now, Cincinnati Children's was
just named number one in oncology,so the numbers there have definitely risen,
which kudos to them. They deserveit. They're incredible at what they do.
Their staff's amazing. But it alsomeans that we've see an influx of
(17:48):
numbers. So on any given week, we could get three patient applications or
ten. It just kind of depends. And like I said, we wish
that number went down, and wewish that we were put out of business,
but for as long as kids arebeing diagnosed and we see our armbers
wives, we're going to be herefighting the good fight with our kids.
Caroline de Graft, University of Daytongraduate, the director of Communication and Marketing
(18:14):
at the Dragonfly Foundation. Carolyn,thank you so much for talking with us
today. Oh my gosh, Sandy, thank you so much. We appreciate
it. Stay right here. There'sa lot more iHeart Sincy coming up.
Making teen mental wellness a top priority. We really need to work on empowering
the students themselves and making sure theyhave the tools and the resources they need
(18:37):
to engage in self care. That'scoming up on iHeart. Since this is
fifty five KRC and iHeartRadio station,the free iHeartRadio app is your home for
the holidays. Open the app andclick on the holiday banner or search iHeart
Holiday and start listening to your localholiday station plus stations playing all kinds of
holiday music, Christmas classics, ChristmasJazz, country, R and B,
(19:02):
tons of playlists, even podcasts.Our gift to you the perfect holiday soundtrack.
Join the millions of listeners on theiHeartRadio app Free. Never sounded so
good. This is iHeart CINCI,a tri state public affairs program produced right
here in Cincinnati. I'm Sandy Collins. My next guest is Jill Miller.
(19:26):
She is the president and CEO ofBethesda, Inc. Which works to improve
the health of all of our neighbors, and today she is here to discuss
world teen mental wellness and how localhigh schools can get behind this initiative to
promote self care with a grant withthe help of the Joe Burrow Foundation.
(19:48):
Jill Miller, thank you for beingwith us, President CEO of Bethesda,
Inc. And how do you sayit? Is it b I? Three?
Is that how you call it?Yes, fairly, I agree.
Tell us what that stands for?The B furbitest up and the three eyes
are for ideas, investments, impacts. So you're using that to promote and
fund important programs and we've found onethat's a good one with the Joe Burrow
(20:15):
Foundation, and that caught my eye. You know, we've been here and
Jill for you know, the lastseveral years about how the mental health of
teenagers has just really been a challenge. There's you know, I suffered through
the pandemic, being isolated from theirpeers, unable to participate in rights of
(20:36):
passage, you know, prom homecoming, even graduation ceremonies, and then when
the pandemic subsided. Now it's liketeens are in the forefront for like so
many of them on the streets andviolence, and it's really frightening to be
an adult to watch this happening tothese kids. So we all know that
we need to help and figure outwhat to do. So that's why this
(21:04):
World Team Mental Health Wellness Day caughtmy attention this week, and I wanted
to talk to you about what you'redoing to help teenagers take care of themselves
and learn how to talk about mentalhealth issues. So if you would,
why don't you tell us about you, how you got started there at Bethesda,
(21:26):
and then why you feel that thisWorld Team Mental Health Wellness Day is
important to fund. So, asPresident and CEO Bethesda, Inc. We
are one of the co sponsors ofTry Health, so we work with them
to transform health in Greater Cincinnati,and we also have our philanthropic arm called
(21:48):
BI three, where we're really ona mission to transform health for all people
in Greater Cincinnati. And since ourinception and twenty ten, one of our
key funding prior parties has been behavioraland mental health because it has been a
crisis for at least a decade andI think with COVID nineteen it really shed
(22:11):
a light on just how bad theyouth mental health crisis is and really escalated
it. Right because of all thethings you just said. Kids were isolated,
they were home, they missed outon important things in their lives.
And the reality is is that wehave a shortage of providers who can provide
therapy and counselors, and so wereally need to work on empowering the students
(22:36):
themselves and making sure they have thetools and the resources they need to engage
in self care and take care oftheir mental health. And so we're really
excited the World Teen Mental Wellness Dayis something that is celebrated all over the
world, and we really wanted tobring it here to Cincinnati and encourage all
(22:57):
high schools, local high schools throughoutGreater Cincinnati to apply for these mini grants.
And the grants are meant to fuelstudent ideas for increasing wellness. So
it could be ideas around fighting stigma, it could be creating a wellness room
at your school. It could bebringing in a really inspirational speaker. What
(23:19):
we have found, honestly, isthat a lot of kids don't even know
the resources that are available to themfor mental and behavioral services within their own
schools, much less our community.It is so hard when you're a young
person to identify what your feelings areanyway, and then when it's more than
(23:42):
stressful, more anxious, perhaps moreviolent, more depressed, it's got to
be even more difficult. So you'reasking high schools to apply for this grant
and then they can use the moneyto have the students talk to each other.
Let's talk about, just real quick, the actual process. So it's
(24:04):
one application per school, correct,and it has to be submitted by a
student. Because we want this tobe student led. They have to have
a sign off from the principle,just so we don't get multiple applications from
every school. But yes, theapplication is on our website at www dot
b three dot org slash mental health. If you go on our home page,
(24:26):
there's actually a link you just clickthere and it'll say apply. And
we really encourage I mean, itwould be amazing if we had all of
our greater Cincinnati high schools participate inthis day, Like what a powerful message
that would send to students and howthis community cares about their mental well being.
Well, we know we've got teacherslistening now, So go to your
(24:48):
school, talk to your principal,take it to the kids, find the
ones in the school that have thatpublic service kind of personality and let them
know about It's BI three dot organd then it's slash teen mental health mental
Health. Okay, if you justgo to B three dot org and you
(25:11):
scroll down, you'll see a flyerfor the World Team Mental Wellness Day.
So all you got to remember isBI three dot org. And yes,
any high school can apply public privatecharter. Now. The day itself is
in March, and you have adeadline to apply. Let's talk about that.
Yes, so we would like toreceive all applications by February first,
(25:34):
and the reason being is because theday will be celebrated in schools on March
first. The actual day is Marchsecond, but that's a Saturday, so
we're gonna we're gonna kick this offon Friday. And the reason for the
applications that are due by February firstis just so we can get the dollars
in the hands of the schools incase they need to pay a speaker or
(25:56):
they want to have t shirts made. So we want to make sure the
funding into their hands prior to theactual day. The application is fairly easy.
What can a student or a teacherexpect to see on the application?
So name, of course, principalsignature, and it's really simple application.
(26:18):
It just asks for what the studentswant to do with the money, like
what are their plans? And thenall as we ask in return is a
picture from the day. Take somepictures at school, post them on social
media, send a few to us, just so we can share them out
and elevate the day and all theparticipation. This is the second year you've
done this, Is that correct?That's correct? This is our second year
(26:41):
and we're teaming up with the BoroughFoundation because I'm hoping that Burrow can help
us reach students and appeal to students. He recognizes how important youth mental health
is and is doing a lot inour community, and so what and interact
for health. So the three ofus are really teaming up and hoping to
encourage high school students to engage.So, because you did this last year,
(27:07):
and because people kind of have tohave an idea of what they might
want to promote before they apply,can you give folks a little bit of
an idea, you said, Tshirts and things like that, but can
you give us a little bit ofa creative idea of maybe what you saw
last year. Yeah, So afew of the schools actually created wellness rooms,
not just for the day, butto have on site at school to
(27:30):
continue to provide that space for kidsto just clear their mind for a few
minutes and take a breath maybe,and create that just safe space for kids
to engage in. We had atleast one school of bringing a motivational speaker
to the students on the importance ofcaring for themselves and self care and prioritizing
(27:52):
that, and a number of differentactivities among the schools. But those are
a few examples. Another thing Iwant to lift up is one school really
took to heart promoting nine to eighteight, which is the mental health crisis
line, and that is really importantthat people know about that. And so
a lot of schools, like Isaid, the students didn't even know what
(28:12):
resources were available to their own schools. And so several schools, you know,
created flyers and bulletins and took toFacebook to educate their own student body
on these are the resources that areavailable to you within your own school,
if you need help, if youneed somebody to talk to. And you
(28:33):
know, what we're finding is thisjust this anxiety among students, particularly high
school students, and they're thinking aboutwhat their future holds. It's just so
important and people need resources to engagein new activities and think about problems differently.
All right. B I three dotorg is the website address to go
and check out the application. Youcan take it back to your school and
(28:57):
got at least oh about a monthand a half to get that together and
get it in and then you willaward those grants to how many schools do
you think you'll be able to fundthis year? We can fund every high
school in Greater Cincinnati. That's big. I did not expect you to say
(29:19):
that. Yes, the three ofus have teamed up and we've calculated if
every high school applied in the areathat we'd be able to fund them.
So this is totally open to everysingle high school. The more the merrier,
and that's five hundred dollars per school. That is tremendous. Jill Miller,
President and CEO Bethesda, Inc.And b I three, thank you
(29:41):
so much for what you're doing.Let's check in again maybe in early February
and see how you did and kindof preview what's going to be coming up
for that day. I would lovethat, Sandy, thank you so much.
Happy to help you out anytime.Thanks also to Caroline de Group,
director of Communication and Marketing at Cincinnati'sDragonfly Foundation, serving pediatric cancer patients and
(30:04):
their families. Their website is Dragonflydot org. That's Dragonfly dot org.
Like to thank you for listening againtoday. You can check out this show
on the iHeartRadio app under podcasts.Just search for my name's Sandy Collins and
that'll make it really easy. There'sa lot of great information there for you
here in the Tri State until nextweek. iHeart Cincy is a production of
(30:27):
iHeartMedia, Cincinnati,
This week on iHeart Citizen. Todaywe're talking about help for families dealing with
childhood cancer. A local organization isdoing amazing work for pediatric cancer patients and
their families, The Dragonfly Foundation.Okay, at Dragonfly looked up the meaning
of dragonfly and they symbolized strength,courage, and joy, and she was
(00:22):
like, that is exactly what Iwant our mission to be. The Dragonfly
Foundation started by Christine and Jim Nitskiafter their ten year old son was diagnosed
with blood cancer and they were thrustinto a world with little support for the
child or for the family. Todayyou'll hear from Carolyn Degrut from the Dragonfly
Foundation how the Cincinnati nonprofit helps thousandsof children in our region and their families
(00:46):
with the emotional, practical, andrelational challenges that these families face, so
they know they are not going throughthis pediatric cancer alone. And later we're
teaming up with a Burrow Foundation becausehe recognizes how important youth mental health is.
It's a big investment in high schoolsin the Tri State to promote world
(01:07):
teen mental wellness. My guest isJill Miller, President and CEO of Bethesda,
Inc. With important details on theircollaboration with the Joe Burrow Foundation to
show teams the way for help andthe emotional support that they need. Now
on iHeart Sinsey with Sandy Collins.Glad to have you here today. We've
got a lot of good information topass along to you this show for the
(01:29):
community to find those resources to solvemany of the issues we face well.
Today we begin with a local nonprofitorganization, the Dragonfly Foundation, which directly
helps pediatric cancer patients here in theTri State and their families with community support
and help where they need it allthrough the journey. My guest is the
(01:52):
director of Communications and Marketing at theDragonfly Foundation in Cincinnati. Caroline de Grout
tell me a little bit. Firstof all, how you came to the
Dragonfly Foundation. Yeah, so Icame back in twenty nineteen. I was
in college at the University of Dayton, was majoring in communication, had a
(02:13):
minor in social work. My momwas a medical social worker, so I
always kind of had that in theback of my head, maybe something I
wanted to do like most people.Unfortunately, I've had a lot of cancer
affect my life. Knew about Dragonfly. My mom works with Dragonfly in her
day to day job and was luckyenough to be offered an internship here.
(02:35):
So I was on the patient sideof things the summer of twenty nineteen doing
all of our patient gifting patient events. Fell in love with the mission,
with our patients, with the team, and then it was lucky enough to
come on full time when I graduatedcollege. So I came on a little
over a year and a half agoas the community relations manager doing all of
(02:57):
our social media, newsletter all thatfun stuff events, and then within the
past six months have transitioned into theDirector of Communications and Marketing and do more
of our public media billboards magazines stilldo the social media of the newsletters,
but of course still do it allbecause no matter what I'm doing, whether
(03:20):
it's an Excel sheet or a patientevent, I'm benefiting our patients and love
our mission the Dragonfly mission. Firstof all, Dragonfly is known to some
people the symbolism of it. Tellme about the symbolism of the Dragonfly Foundation,
and then tell us about your missionfor pediatric cancer. Yeah, absolutely
so. Our founder Christine Knightsky,after your cancer had struck their family and
(03:45):
they had gone through their journey,knew that she wanted to do something to
give back to Cincinnati Children's and shewanted our logo to be simple and clean,
and she wanted it to be aneasy name that people knew, but
she didn't necessarily want cancer in thename. So she started throwing out different
ideas she was thinking of doing,like the giving Tree or different insects or
bugs, and talked to her son, Matt, who went through treatment,
(04:11):
and she threw out a few ideasto him and he was like, Mom,
those are terrible, and he said, what about the Dragonfly Foundation And
she's like, of course, myteenage son thinks my ideas are terrible,
and was like, okay, adragon fly. Looked up the meaning of
dragonfly and they symbolized strength, courage, and joy, and she was like,
(04:31):
that is exactly what I want ourmission to be. So it just
worked, and that is our mission. Our mission is to provide strength,
courage and joy to pediatric cancer patientsand their families and whatever that looks like,
whether that's an event, community buildingresources to help them with groceries or
urgent needs. And we started withsmall things like Plato and happy meals being
(04:54):
delivered to the hospital, and nowwe have events with over three hundred patients
and families and really build a networkfor these families so that they don't feel
so alone throughout this journey, andtry and plug in those resources that the
medical staff can't provide and fill thatgap emotionally and keep the memories going,
keep life going, all while supportingthe entire family. Because Christine has two
(05:18):
sons, one who went through ajourney and the other who was there supporting
his brother and his family. Andunfortunately, the case just is that a
lot of the attention is on thepatient, and Christine never wants other siblings,
cousins, aunts, uncles, whoeverit is in the family to feel
excluded from the journey. Earnthick theyare not supported. So it's really really
(05:42):
important to us that we support theentire family. Let's do a little deeper
dive into actual services, because that'swhat makes you unique at the Dragonfly Foundation.
So you're talking about everything from introducingpeople to each other to supporting the
patient when they get to the hospital, supporting the parentrance. What are some
of the tangible things that the averagelistener may not realize you can do for
(06:05):
a pediatric cancer patient. Yeah,So our first point of contact and first
introduction to families is a big bluecare bag. Social work brings that in
normally on day one of diagnosis,and that bag is full of everything that
the staff Children's has told us andpatients and families have told us. When
(06:27):
the doctor told us either you're stayinghere your child has cancer, or go
to the hospital with child has cancer, we didn't think to grab. So
it's toilet choose to get you throughthose first couple of weeks. It's a
water bottle of flashlights you can getup in the middle of the night with
out turning on all the lights.It's especially curated notebook and patient log to
keep all of your doctor's appointments,notes, medication, and it's all kinds
(06:50):
of stuff that you don't think tograb. And it's also our application in
there, and it's super simple.It's just a name, diagnosis, and
age. From there, the socialwork team sends that to us, we
immediately call the family, get toknow them, welcome them to Dragonfly,
and gift the patient and siblings rightthen and there. Also in there we
(07:14):
have our Dragonfly Way, which iskind of our magazine, sharing different stories,
explaining more about what we do andkind of helping these families through those
first few weeks. Of course,it's a family that we never want anyone
to have to join, but we'rereally fortunate that we're here and we're thankful
to be able to support these families. So that's kind of our biggest program
(07:38):
that we're most known for is ourblue bags and then from there, whatever
the journey looks like, whether it'smom and dad need help with gas money,
we do tons of gas gift cardsto help mom and dad get to
and from the hospital or whoever caregiveris. We have our I Am still
Me hair loss program, so ina patient's gift, their first Innish gift
(08:00):
is a T shirt that says Iam Stoney. There's also a book that
we have, our I Am StoneMeat Book, and it's all different patient
stories of them before, during,and after their hair lost throughout treatment and
losing hair is a big part ofa lot of kids treatment and it's hair
is a big identity for so manypeople, and as a child losing your
(08:22):
hair and not knowing what's going on, and especially your peers not knowing what's
going on. That I Am StoneMeat program is there to kind of normalize
that process to help parents, teachers, classmates, everybody kind of understand what's
going on and to ensure the childthat they're still them. Cancer doesn't define
(08:43):
them, their hair doesn't define them. So that's another one of our really
cool programs that Marty Brenneman when heshaved his head on the Great American Ballpark
field, he was wearing one ofthose I Am Stoney t shirts. So
that's kind of a staple that alot of people recognize. Tell me about
the Dragonfly House that you have purchasedwhat five years ago or so near Cincinnati
(09:07):
Children's The Hawk? Is it HeineHouse? Hawk? Heine House? Yeah?
It was. Yeah, So youhad this big, beautiful old home,
did a multimillion dollar renovation. Whereare you at now in that process?
Yeah, So we bought this houseright before COVID hit that summer of
(09:28):
twenty nineteen. Actually, when Istarted as an intern with Dragonfly, we
moved into this house and we've beenrenovating ever since. Of course, the
pandemic shut us down for a whilewith renovations and everything. But this main
house we call the landing because everydragonfly needs a place to land. So
the upstairs is all of our offices, administrative stuff, nothing fun, our
(09:50):
fancy, and the first floor isa space for our families to come and
hang out. We used to bea mason and we moved to this location
so that we're just two or threeblocks from Children's. We can get to
our patients quickly and our patients canget to us quickly as well. Behind
the landing is what's called the carriagehouse, and we are full blown renovations
(10:15):
on that and we will open inthe spring, and that carriage house is
essentially a giant playhouse for our kids. The first floor we'll have a little
bit of programming space for us tohave volunteers come in and help us with
things, but it's also going tohave a library, a game room,
a kitchen area, and it's reallyjust a place for our families to come
(10:35):
get out of the hospital for alittle while. If they've a long day
of appointments and they have an hourbreak in between, instead of sitting in
the hospital room, they could comehere, hang out, feel normal,
feel like they're at home. Butit's also going to be a place for
kids who are immune compromised to comehave a safe space to play with other
kids, to be normal to beout of the hospital or out of their
(10:58):
home, but still be in thatsafe environment. So renovations will be done
middle of the spring, and wecan't wait to have that open so that
our patients and families can be backhere and be together and living their normal
lives. I'm guessing a lot ofthe families might stay at the Ronald McDonald
House. Yeah, so we don'tdo any overnight stays here at Dragonfly,
(11:22):
but several of our patients are stayingat the Ronald McDonald House again, so
thankful to have that close by.That's another great option for those families who
are staying there, But we're herefor the families who even just live an
hour away but live too close tostay at the ron So, of course
were McDonald's families can come, anyof our patients can come and hang out.
(11:45):
So we're super duper excited to beable to offer this again to our
families because it's something we did allthe time at our old space, but
since we've been here, it's kindof been put on pause. Your website's
really well done. It shows howpeople in certain areas can donate certain types
of gifts, from gift cards toevent tickets, And I love the emphasis
(12:11):
on even if it's least minute tickets, we can take them and we can
get them to the people because youhave you have an emergency way of doing
that. So let's say somebody has, you know, four tickets to a
ball game and they want to donatethem to you, and the game is
that night. How would that howwould that end up being implemented? Yeah,
for sure, It's as easy asjust calling our main number here are
(12:35):
emailing us. All of that informationis on our website, and then we
have a patient portal and a privatepatient Facebook group. Our patient program director,
Hannah's incredible. She is super ontop of everything. She gets that
information out to our parents immediately andif anyone's available to go it's thankfully everything
(12:56):
is now digital ticket wise, sodoing those of transfers is super easy.
It's just sending the tickets to Hannahand then Hannah is sending them to the
patient. So yeah, I meanall the time we are last minute getting
ticket donations, which we're so sograteful for to give those families those experiences
(13:16):
in those moments of joy. Alot of times cancer can bring on huge
financial struggles, so sometimes those additionalmemories are hard to make, so it's
incredible to give that to our families. And then we also have our own
suite at Heritage Bank Center, andthat's great, not only because then we
can offer for our families to goto every event that they offer, but
(13:37):
it's also a little bit safer forour families who are in active treatment and
need to be away from a bigcrowd. So that sweet is a really
special place for us to be ableto send patients who are immune compromised at
their time and treatment to still goand do those normal fun things. So
you have corporate sponsorships obviously, butthen for the average list, what sorts
(14:01):
of things can they donate to theDragonfly Foundation. Yeah, I mean I
always say gift cards. Gift cardsis our biggest thing, whether it's a
Visa gift card and Amazon gift card. We're always giving out gas gift cards,
Kroger, Walmart, Target, justkind of for those basic necessities.
(14:22):
We love to be able to givethe gift cards because there's not a lot
of control throughout treatment that these familiescan have. You're given a treatment plan
and that's kind of what you've gotto follow, so to be able to
give a gift card and allow ourfamilies to do their normal grocery shopping or
buy whatever they want for their childrenis really important to us. So those
(14:43):
gift cards are always always huge andsuper helpful. And then the other big
thing is those tickets or experiences forour families to offer them. And of
course, being in December, alot of folks are looking for that tax
deductible donation that they need to makebefore the end of the year. And
as a five oh one C three, the Dragonfly Foundation would work. So
(15:05):
you know, plunk down a couplethousand dollars in gift cards. You can
just log right there on the websiteand take care of all of that right
there, or call the organization.You have hundreds of fundraisers throughout the year,
little partnerships throughout the area. Inoticed one of my favorite places,
Papa John's. They're offering twenty percentoff your entire order when you use the
(15:28):
promo code Dragonfly twenty and then ontop of that they will donate a dollar
for every order. So you gotholiday pizza parties coming up Papa John's,
and that goes all the way throughthe end of December. Is that right,
Yes, that's correct. Yep,goes all the way through the end
of the year. We're so sothankful for our partnership with Papa John's.
There incredible and we definitely need ourshare fair share of Papa Johns around here.
(15:52):
Yes, ma'am. Of course theBengals are playing, you know,
this weekend. I think they playyesterday on a Saturday. But you've still
got some games coming up, Soorder those Papa John's and put the promo
code in there, Dragonfly twenty.They'll give you twenty percent off your order
and then donate a dollar to theDragonfly Foundation. Is there anything else,
(16:15):
Caroline, that we need to talkabout before we take off? Really?
I mean, we just sharing ourmission, letting other people know what we're
doing, and just the support ofour community means obviously so much to us
as a foundation. But we alsodo serve so many local patients those of
(16:36):
course patients from all over the country, all over the world that we serve
at Sin Sandy Children's. But thoselittle fundraisers or the school fundrais, those
are the restaurants. It's so coolfor our patients and families to see.
So just I always try and saythank you to them publicly, because to
know that your community has your backwhen you're going through this means the world
to our families. Can you giveme a number, I'm trying to imagine
(17:02):
how many children have cancer in thisarea. Do you have a number or
like an average or normal patient load? Yeah. So since twenty ten when
we started, we've served over sevenfour hundred patients and families, and that's
just the families that are being treatedat Cincinnati Children's Hospital. I wish that
(17:26):
number would go down. I wishthat we didn't get so many patient applications,
but it really varies. Of course. Right now, Cincinnati Children's was
just named number one in oncology,so the numbers there have definitely risen,
which kudos to them. They deserveit. They're incredible at what they do.
Their staff's amazing. But it alsomeans that we've see an influx of
(17:48):
numbers. So on any given week, we could get three patient applications or
ten. It just kind of depends. And like I said, we wish
that number went down, and wewish that we were put out of business,
but for as long as kids arebeing diagnosed and we see our armbers
wives, we're going to be herefighting the good fight with our kids.
Caroline de Graft, University of Daytongraduate, the director of Communication and Marketing
(18:14):
at the Dragonfly Foundation. Carolyn,thank you so much for talking with us
today. Oh my gosh, Sandy, thank you so much. We appreciate
it. Stay right here. There'sa lot more iHeart Sincy coming up.
Making teen mental wellness a top priority. We really need to work on empowering
the students themselves and making sure theyhave the tools and the resources they need
(18:37):
to engage in self care. That'scoming up on iHeart. Since this is
fifty five KRC and iHeartRadio station,the free iHeartRadio app is your home for
the holidays. Open the app andclick on the holiday banner or search iHeart
Holiday and start listening to your localholiday station plus stations playing all kinds of
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(19:02):
tons of playlists, even podcasts.Our gift to you the perfect holiday soundtrack.
Join the millions of listeners on theiHeartRadio app Free. Never sounded so
good. This is iHeart CINCI,a tri state public affairs program produced right
here in Cincinnati. I'm Sandy Collins. My next guest is Jill Miller.
(19:26):
She is the president and CEO ofBethesda, Inc. Which works to improve
the health of all of our neighbors, and today she is here to discuss
world teen mental wellness and how localhigh schools can get behind this initiative to
promote self care with a grant withthe help of the Joe Burrow Foundation.
(19:48):
Jill Miller, thank you for beingwith us, President CEO of Bethesda,
Inc. And how do you sayit? Is it b I? Three?
Is that how you call it?Yes, fairly, I agree.
Tell us what that stands for?The B furbitest up and the three eyes
are for ideas, investments, impacts. So you're using that to promote and
fund important programs and we've found onethat's a good one with the Joe Burrow
(20:15):
Foundation, and that caught my eye. You know, we've been here and
Jill for you know, the lastseveral years about how the mental health of
teenagers has just really been a challenge. There's you know, I suffered through
the pandemic, being isolated from theirpeers, unable to participate in rights of
(20:36):
passage, you know, prom homecoming, even graduation ceremonies, and then when
the pandemic subsided. Now it's liketeens are in the forefront for like so
many of them on the streets andviolence, and it's really frightening to be
an adult to watch this happening tothese kids. So we all know that
we need to help and figure outwhat to do. So that's why this
(21:04):
World Team Mental Health Wellness Day caughtmy attention this week, and I wanted
to talk to you about what you'redoing to help teenagers take care of themselves
and learn how to talk about mentalhealth issues. So if you would,
why don't you tell us about you, how you got started there at Bethesda,
(21:26):
and then why you feel that thisWorld Team Mental Health Wellness Day is
important to fund. So, asPresident and CEO Bethesda, Inc. We
are one of the co sponsors ofTry Health, so we work with them
to transform health in Greater Cincinnati,and we also have our philanthropic arm called
(21:48):
BI three, where we're really ona mission to transform health for all people
in Greater Cincinnati. And since ourinception and twenty ten, one of our
key funding prior parties has been behavioraland mental health because it has been a
crisis for at least a decade andI think with COVID nineteen it really shed
(22:11):
a light on just how bad theyouth mental health crisis is and really escalated
it. Right because of all thethings you just said. Kids were isolated,
they were home, they missed outon important things in their lives.
And the reality is is that wehave a shortage of providers who can provide
therapy and counselors, and so wereally need to work on empowering the students
(22:36):
themselves and making sure they have thetools and the resources they need to engage
in self care and take care oftheir mental health. And so we're really
excited the World Teen Mental Wellness Dayis something that is celebrated all over the
world, and we really wanted tobring it here to Cincinnati and encourage all
(22:57):
high schools, local high schools throughoutGreater Cincinnati to apply for these mini grants.
And the grants are meant to fuelstudent ideas for increasing wellness. So
it could be ideas around fighting stigma, it could be creating a wellness room
at your school. It could bebringing in a really inspirational speaker. What
(23:19):
we have found, honestly, isthat a lot of kids don't even know
the resources that are available to themfor mental and behavioral services within their own
schools, much less our community.It is so hard when you're a young
person to identify what your feelings areanyway, and then when it's more than
(23:42):
stressful, more anxious, perhaps moreviolent, more depressed, it's got to
be even more difficult. So you'reasking high schools to apply for this grant
and then they can use the moneyto have the students talk to each other.
Let's talk about, just real quick, the actual process. So it's
(24:04):
one application per school, correct,and it has to be submitted by a
student. Because we want this tobe student led. They have to have
a sign off from the principle,just so we don't get multiple applications from
every school. But yes, theapplication is on our website at www dot
b three dot org slash mental health. If you go on our home page,
(24:26):
there's actually a link you just clickthere and it'll say apply. And
we really encourage I mean, itwould be amazing if we had all of
our greater Cincinnati high schools participate inthis day, Like what a powerful message
that would send to students and howthis community cares about their mental well being.
Well, we know we've got teacherslistening now, So go to your
(24:48):
school, talk to your principal,take it to the kids, find the
ones in the school that have thatpublic service kind of personality and let them
know about It's BI three dot organd then it's slash teen mental health mental
Health. Okay, if you justgo to B three dot org and you
(25:11):
scroll down, you'll see a flyerfor the World Team Mental Wellness Day.
So all you got to remember isBI three dot org. And yes,
any high school can apply public privatecharter. Now. The day itself is
in March, and you have adeadline to apply. Let's talk about that.
Yes, so we would like toreceive all applications by February first,
(25:34):
and the reason being is because theday will be celebrated in schools on March
first. The actual day is Marchsecond, but that's a Saturday, so
we're gonna we're gonna kick this offon Friday. And the reason for the
applications that are due by February firstis just so we can get the dollars
in the hands of the schools incase they need to pay a speaker or
(25:56):
they want to have t shirts made. So we want to make sure the
funding into their hands prior to theactual day. The application is fairly easy.
What can a student or a teacherexpect to see on the application?
So name, of course, principalsignature, and it's really simple application.
(26:18):
It just asks for what the studentswant to do with the money, like
what are their plans? And thenall as we ask in return is a
picture from the day. Take somepictures at school, post them on social
media, send a few to us, just so we can share them out
and elevate the day and all theparticipation. This is the second year you've
done this, Is that correct?That's correct? This is our second year
(26:41):
and we're teaming up with the BoroughFoundation because I'm hoping that Burrow can help
us reach students and appeal to students. He recognizes how important youth mental health
is and is doing a lot inour community, and so what and interact
for health. So the three ofus are really teaming up and hoping to
encourage high school students to engage.So, because you did this last year,
(27:07):
and because people kind of have tohave an idea of what they might
want to promote before they apply,can you give folks a little bit of
an idea, you said, Tshirts and things like that, but can
you give us a little bit ofa creative idea of maybe what you saw
last year. Yeah, So afew of the schools actually created wellness rooms,
not just for the day, butto have on site at school to
(27:30):
continue to provide that space for kidsto just clear their mind for a few
minutes and take a breath maybe,and create that just safe space for kids
to engage in. We had atleast one school of bringing a motivational speaker
to the students on the importance ofcaring for themselves and self care and prioritizing
(27:52):
that, and a number of differentactivities among the schools. But those are
a few examples. Another thing Iwant to lift up is one school really
took to heart promoting nine to eighteight, which is the mental health crisis
line, and that is really importantthat people know about that. And so
a lot of schools, like Isaid, the students didn't even know what
(28:12):
resources were available to their own schools. And so several schools, you know,
created flyers and bulletins and took toFacebook to educate their own student body
on these are the resources that areavailable to you within your own school,
if you need help, if youneed somebody to talk to. And you
(28:33):
know, what we're finding is thisjust this anxiety among students, particularly high
school students, and they're thinking aboutwhat their future holds. It's just so
important and people need resources to engagein new activities and think about problems differently.
All right. B I three dotorg is the website address to go
and check out the application. Youcan take it back to your school and
(28:57):
got at least oh about a monthand a half to get that together and
get it in and then you willaward those grants to how many schools do
you think you'll be able to fundthis year? We can fund every high
school in Greater Cincinnati. That's big. I did not expect you to say
(29:19):
that. Yes, the three ofus have teamed up and we've calculated if
every high school applied in the areathat we'd be able to fund them.
So this is totally open to everysingle high school. The more the merrier,
and that's five hundred dollars per school. That is tremendous. Jill Miller,
President and CEO Bethesda, Inc.And b I three, thank you
(29:41):
so much for what you're doing.Let's check in again maybe in early February
and see how you did and kindof preview what's going to be coming up
for that day. I would lovethat, Sandy, thank you so much.
Happy to help you out anytime.Thanks also to Caroline de Group,
director of Communication and Marketing at Cincinnati'sDragonfly Foundation, serving pediatric cancer patients and
(30:04):
their families. Their website is Dragonflydot org. That's Dragonfly dot org.
Like to thank you for listening againtoday. You can check out this show
on the iHeartRadio app under podcasts.Just search for my name's Sandy Collins and
that'll make it really easy. There'sa lot of great information there for you
here in the Tri State until nextweek. iHeart Cincy is a production of
(30:27):
iHeartMedia, Cincinnati,
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