Volunteerism is the practice of freely giving your time, energy, and skills to help others or support a worthy cause without expecting financial payment. It is the silent engine that keeps many nonprofits going and doing their thing. My entire family has taken on many volunteer projects over the years, mostly helping organizations focused on childhood cancer. For us, it is that Post-Traumatic Growth and Gains. The term PTG was coined by Dr. Richard T. Tedeschi, Ph.D., a profe

Since our son Ryan had his life-saving Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant on this day 21 years ago, we consider it a birthday of sorts. Yes, we celebrate on August 16, his birthday, but Ryan’s “other” birthday (today) with a new marrow that manifested in Ryan’s body in less than 100 days between November 3, 2004, and March 1, 2005, is also celebrated. We are still grateful for the selfless act of Scott Harris of New Jersey, donating his bone marrow and a lot of his A+ blood for