Why We Walk for St. Mary's Children & Families

St. Mary's a national leader in intensive rehabilitation, specialized care, and education for children with life-limiting conditions. Our mission is to improve the health and quality of life for children and families with special needs. Following hospitalizations for injury, illness or complications of premature birth or when special services are needed, children and their families come to St. Mary's to receive exceptional care, learn to manage their condition, and achieve a better quality of life.

St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children has been helping and healing children for over 145 years. We’ve grown from our humble beginnings as a 15-bed facility in Manhattan to our nine-acre Queens campus, where we operate at-capacity with 103-beds—and through our day and home care services and community program, improve the lives of thousands more.

This is why we walk!

Anthony

Anthony is a four-year-old boy with a lot of energy and a contagious laugh and smile. He was recently diagnosed with Bronchiolitis Obliterans, an inflammatory condition that affects the lung’s tiniest airways, the bronchioles. This condition caused extensive scarring in both his lungs and Anthony found himself having trouble breathing. Anthony came to St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children for intensive rehabilitation.  Thanks to his treatment at St. Mary’s Anthony has been making amazing progress and has learned how to manage his breathing and soon will be evaluated for a lung transplant.

Throughout all of this, Anthony continues to be positive and motivated and has a contagious smile. On any given day you can find him smiling and laughing, playing with his toys and enjoying one of his Grandmas home-cooked meals.

Kervin

Kervin has made great strides since he joined St. Mary’s Medical Day Healthcare Program back in 2015. When he began as a 9-year-old with Muscular Dystrophy who was unable to walk, he didn’t know just how much he would be able to achieve—but he didn’t let that stop him.  During Kervin’s weekly Occupational and Physical Therapy sessions he continues to take every challenge head-on and tackles each and every obstacle with persistence.

Kervin being one of the older kids in the Medical Day Healthcare afterschool program has become a role model to the younger kids.  While in program Kervin likes to play video games and outdoor tag. He is a fun, caring kid, who loves to have fun and joke around with his peers.  He is so happy that St. Mary’s has helped him improve, achieve goals, and just enjoy being a kid!

Aidan

Aidan is a happy, outgoing and brave 15-year-old boy that was born at 29 weeks and shortly thereafter developed a condition in his brain known as Hydrocephalus. Aidan’s doctors placed a shunt in his head in the hopes of correcting the condition, but there was already enough damage to his brain for Aidan to have Cerebral Palsy. Aidan started therapy at home, which is where his family was introduced to St. Mary’s Hospital for Children. His family feels blessed from the beginning to have dedicated and professional caseworkers and therapists that were able to walk them through the very complex world of having a child with special needs.

Currently, Aidan attends Carman Road School, where his contagious smile lights up the hallways and classrooms. He loves to listen to music, sing, play ball, have books read to him, ride elevators and really loves being around people. He has even inspired several people to obtain degrees in Education in Special Needs.

Meena

One day in 2004, when Meena was only 12 years old, she was involved in a house fire. After the fire, Meena was diagnosed with Anoxic Brain Damage and her ability to walk and talk was impaired. She had difficulty expressing her wants and needs and had difficulty communicating with others.

Meena joined St. Mary’s Medical Day Healthcare Program in 2015. She has been a great addition to the program and has made great strides since joining. Meena can understand words being spoken to her and has gotten better at responding and expressing herself.

Meena loves to listen to music and can often be heard singing along to her favorite songs. She does even better with her therapies when her favorite artist, Adele, is playing. 

Olivia

Olivia is a beautiful 13-year old with so much love to give. She was born prematurely and throughout her life has faced many challenges. To help meet her goals, Olivia receives speech and occupational therapy from St. Mary’s Care at Home program.

 Through all of her hard work, Olivia has gone from being non-verbal and barely ambulatory to a singing, chatty teenage girl who loves to listen to music and dance. She can now engage in fun activities like going to sleep-away camp and going horseback riding. Her life has become one of possibilities instead of limitations.

 Olivia loves working with her St. Mary’s therapists and will do anything to make them laugh. She somehow always manages to light up a room with her joyful presence.

Learn more about St. Mary's Healthcare System for Children