For a long time, I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the roots of which stemming from the time I bumped into the comedian who would become its Founder
It was on a warm sunny day in LA when I couldn’t help noticing his highly contagious smile alongside me in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel also waiting for what in those pre-Huber days were plain old taxicabs.
Suddenly I felt like the famous comedian’s side kick for he was none other than Danny Thomas who was making me laugh until our respective rides arrived.
Those indelible few seconds were a memorable highlight of one of my many trips out to the coast at the behest of my then famous boss, Fred Silverman, who had brought me along with him from ABC when he became the CEO at 30 Rock.
Over the years after bumping into Danny, I’d watch those heart pumping TV commercials showing children battling beasts that had invaded their small, delicate bodies, which St. Jude hospital became so expert at discovering and then removing without a trace, cancer.
So, when Jonathan Kendrick, co-founder of ROKiT Industries told me about his ROKiT Homes, I couldn’t help thinking about the families of children undergoing cancer treatment at St. Jude while their families coped with the lingering results of those devastating floods in the state next door, North Carolina.
ROKiT’s inexpensive modular homes can be put together in a couple hours providing families protection against another horrific disease caused by floods, fires or tornadoes, homelessness! ROKiT Homes are secure temporary dwellings to live in safely and comfortably for $5 a week and only $1,500 down even on the same lot where their damaged or destroyed homes are being repaired or rebuilt.
Seeing those rampaging floods in North Carolina, then discovering Danny Thomas’s enterprising hospital at 262 Danny Thomas Place in Tennessee had an affiliate clinic right next door in North Carolina for treating children with cancer and blood disorders got me thinking. Why not treat cancers inside and out? Is homelessness not another form of cancer caused by floods, fires and tornados that’s struck families across America, from Los Angeles to Asheville?
I couldn’t help thinking that by partnering with a company like ROKit Homes, St. Jude could also offer inexpensive temporary modular housing for the dislocated families of their young patients which can be built in just a few hours providing low-cost shelter safely and comfortably in communities’ hardest hit.
It’s estimated it will cost $60 billion for North Carolina to recover from Hurricane Helene, according to the latest state estimate. But a request released more recently for additional federal funding notes that only about $10 billion of that has been secured so far. But now we’re experiencing those long overdue cutbacks in Federal Government spending.
Hence, I’m envisioning a program called “Curing Cancers Inside and Out,” which is inspiring me to recommend that St. Jude and ROKiT partner up to raise even more funds for homeless families of some of the children St. Jude treats for cancer.
So, currently I’m communicating with the Chief Operating Officer of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s fund-raising arm, ALSAC, to see what can be done in those dual directions toward not only healthier but happier Danny-Thomas-like lives.
And if something comes about, I promise you’ll be the first to know.
Tom Madden is a self-appointed adversary against the many forms of cancers plaguing our country, including one called Climate Change, for which he has created a champion figure to fight it, Planetary Lifeguard, Blowing the Whistle Against Climate Change, also the title of his latest book. When he’s not writing books and blogs from http://www.maddenmischief.com, he’s managing the PR firm he started when he left NBC, TransMedia Group, together with his dauntless PR daughter Adrienne Mazzone, the firm’s restless president.