Ambassador inspires Niagara Shriners
Last week the Niagara Shrine Club got to see first-hand what their tireless dedication to fundraising for the 22 Shriners hospitals can achieve.
“Shrine kids and community partners have been a priority to create a better awareness,” said club president and Thorold native Greg Lidstone. “With that in mind, we began inviting guest speakers to the meetings.
“I think it helps build the Niagara Shrine Club profile and creates better awareness in the community about the children we serve and the specialized health care Shriners Hospitals provide,” he added.
The recent meeting welcomed 12-year-old Emily Mellish, who receives treatment at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Erie, Pa. Niagara area Shrine clubs most often work with that hospital and the one in Montreal.
Lidstone met with Emily’s parents at the Erie hospital and invited them to Niagara. Emily was born with spina bifida, severe scoliosis and a twisted, shorter left leg. Most conventional doctors recommended amputation right after birth, but Shriners Hospitals surgeons saw things differently.
Emily, described more than once by local Shriners as a “firecracker,” lived up to her reputation. Now, the National Patient Ambassador for Shriners Hospitals, she delighted the crowd with her speech and wowed them with her tireless efforts to fundraise.
“It is my dream and an honour to be the National Patient Ambassador,” she said in her short presentation to the club. “You saved my leg; all the other doctors gave up on it. They all wanted to amputate. But not Shriners; you all gave me hope,” she said.
“Now I can walk, run, play with my sisters and dance,” she said, punctuating the comment with a brief demonstration of the twist.
Emily told Shriners, “You have taught me that I can do anything and no dream is too big.”
She told the crowd that Shriners never gave up on her so she wanted to give back and launched her own fundraising initiative called Beads 4 Needs when she was only seven years old. To date, her handmade jewelry has raised more than US$100,000. Her goal is to raise $1 million. She urged the group to step up its own fundraising efforts.
“I’ve had 27 surgeries and I won’t ever give up. When it comes down to it, whatever you do for kids is priceless,” she said to a standing ovation.
The club members dug deep during the evening, buying her beads and custom neckties.
“I don’t want to take any of these home,” she said, only partially joking.
In an interview afterwards, Emily said she’d just arrived in Niagara Falls that afternoon with her mom Joy, dad Thad and sisters Lauren and Taylor. With no time for sightseeing, they had to leave immediately. They were headed to Greenville, S.C., for two reasons.
“I want to visit all 22 Shriners Hospitals and this will be my third,” she said. “And I’m going there for big business, to shoot a commercial for the Shriners.”
With obvious emotion her father told the gathering, “We looked for help from doctors along the East Coast and they wanted to amputate. But Shrine surgeons treat the whole kid. You treat kids like kids. And, oh my God, you provide free health care that is not inferior, but superior to traditional hospitals.”