It’s hard to imagine the unimaginable and often frightening to think about the unthinkable, but that’s what we’ll be doing at Children’s Hospital this week.  As we’ve seen with Hurricane Katrina and other large emergencies, disasters do happen. This Wednesday June 17, for the first time anywhere in the country, the U.S. military will assist hospitals throughout southeastern Wisconsin in practicing our coordinated response to a simulated disaster in the community.  The exercise is known as the Red Dragon – Homeland Defense Training Exercise and is the largest full-scale exercise in the United States this year.  Close to 3,000 troops will be spread across 10 hospitals to rehearse our disaster plans and work together to meet crucial medical needs.

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Kids helping kids. You hear that phrase a lot. We at the MACC Fund (Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer, Inc.) often see this in action as kids reach out to help a child with cancer or a blood disorder. Here are just a few wonderful examples:

• Shorewood High School’s “Shorewood Games,” held nearly every four years since 1988 when they were inspired to help a student with cancer named Gus. Special events galore, “Buzz Cuts” for boys and girls and fun between students and faculty helped raise more than $30,000 for the MACC Fund’s fight against childhood cancer and blood disorders. Kids helping kids.\

• The Lake Country Charity Invitational golf event sponsored by Hartland Arrowhead High School includes many of Wisconsin’s finest high school golfers. Brandon, who graduated from high school in 2008 after battling cancer for six years, inspired the team before they teed off through a very emotional letter. He encouraged them to never take anything for granted and to be grateful for their health and for the chance to compete.

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Pirates meet patients at Children's Hospital!

As a performer with First Stage Children’s Theater, I was fortunate to visit Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin for our annual end-of-season performance there. And what a show it was! The production is called “How I Became A Pirate.”

We left the Todd Wehr Theater at the Marcus Center in downtown Milwaukee in our costumes and five of us “pirates” rode in my dad’s van. It was particularly amusing to pass people on the street who noticed a van full of pirates. From the moment we arrived until the moment we left, the staff at Children’s Hospital couldn’t have been more gracious and friendly. They joked with us about how we probably didn’t need to wear visitor passes because we would be fairly easy to identify.

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