The
hotel was wonderful, the cherubs miracles and we learned so much from
the researchers and each other. The weather was great. We truly could
not have asked for a better week!!!
The kids were
adorable dressed as cherubs for our Save the Cherubs campaign - we got
some AMAZING photos, including photos at Disney, with Mickey and
Minnie, at the pool and the first Parade of Cherubs and CDH balloon
release. And they sung the CDH Kids Song for us again this year!
We
met so many wonderful families! The pizza party, introductions and
each day was wonderful. CDH Research Day included slide shows,
information and research participation. CDH Support Day included many
round-table discussions on every topic dealing with CDH. CDH Awareness
Day included everyone learning about easy and fun ways to raise
awareness. Everyone left the conference with new friends, lots of new
information and excited to go home and start working to help other CDH
families! It was an absolute pleasure to meet so many wonderful
parents and cherubs (and grandparents and other family members too!)
that we talk to on-line all year round. Good-byes were definitely hard
this year!
<>This
was our 10th anniversary of the first international Congenital
Diaphragmatic Hernia Conference, also held in Orlando. We are so
proud of our conferences and guest speakers! Put together by
volunteers and medical professionals with CDH experience and built upon
15 years of working together to offer the most services and information
and support for families at our conferences - while keeping them fun
and affordable. They aren't just CHERUBS members getting together and
hanging out, they aren't conferences about CHERUBS at all - they are
truly 100% about Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia! They have included
so many incredible doctors and researchers;
We've
also had representatives from CHERUBS UK, CHERUBS Australia, the Olivia
Raine Foundation, Little Lambs, Real Hope for CDH and other great ACDHO organizations
attend our conferences! Not to mention members from all across the
U.S. as well as England, Ireland, Australia, Italy, Mexico and Canada!
Many
families participated in CDH genetic studies by giving blood samples at
the conference. We were fortunate to have 5 researchers participate!
Not only did they speak on their research and share new information
with us but they sat in on round-table discussions and learned from
parents as well. We will post more about the researchers and research
and how you can participate in the next few days! :)
CHERUBS
also participated in 2 medical conferences and we have quite a bit of
CDH research and projects going on that we will post about soon! It
was WONDERFUL to see the surgeons wearing our ribbon and buttons, to
hear all the lectures on CDH, to talk to them about CDH and share our
own information with them. So many came up to us to thank us for our
work, gather materials for their patients' families, to tell us they
signed the petition against the trademark and were rooting for us, to
ask us questions about how to deal with CDH families. One conference
even had a member wearing wings during their awards ceremony, escorting
award winners to the podium. This same conference had a speech about
CDH and recognized CHERUBS and our work - we were even cited as their
reference for a lot of their research information. We even found a
few sponsors along the way. CHERUBS is the first charity to ever
attend these events, we are so honored to be a part of both conferences!
It
was a wonderful, productive, supportive and very beneficial week for
the CDH Community! More photos, details and videos coming soon!
We hope to see everyone next year!
