Stairmasters

Last night I went to a party for the hospital employees who participated in the fundraising stair climb up the Sears tower. The stair climb was a couple weeks ago – I did it with a team of coworkers from the labs I work in. It was a fun event, and the first time I did something in a team like that. Climbing up all those 2100 stairs was definitely hard.. but felt like quite an accomplishment when I got to the top!

The really cool thing about this event was that it was for the rehabilitation hospital where I work – and in addition to the stairclimb, they also offered a hand cycle event for patients who are unable to walk up the stairs. This meant that a lot of patients were also able to participate.

I wanted to go to the party mostly for free food and drinks, as did some of the other grad students from our team… typical :) But it turned out to be even better than free dinner. The CEO played a video montage thing that included a lot of interviews with participants and what the event meant to them. It was kind of cheesy in a typical marketing way… but I have to say that it was inspiring to see so many people climbing the stairs in order to raise funds and awareness for our little hospital. I say little, because being there every day, it’s easy to forget how important it is.. but it’s the number one rehabilitation hospital in the country. And it includes a research program unmatched by other rehabilitation centers.

At this party, I learned some really random things - like how one employee from the finance department lost 40 lbs training for the stairclimb; and how the CEO finished the climb in 20 minutes, faster than all but 1 of our team members – who include some really athletic students; and how the CEO apparently likes Miley Cyrus, as she kept endorsing some song of hers about climbing a mountain.. haha. I also learned that the event raised over $600,000 to go to patient care and research. The employees accounted for over $100,000 of that, which I thought was pretty cool. Our research contingent didn’t really break any fundraising records (not that surprising considering that half the team consisted of grad students) but we did make our team goal of raising $3000. This was the first stair climb in the Sears tower, so I guess it is a pretty big deal. I’m glad it was so successful! A big thanks to all the friends/family who donated to me :)

I definitely needed the reminder of why we do the research we do, and how it ties in to the patients. The research department has a tendency to be somewhat isolated in the hospital, since many people who work in research are graduate students/post-docs/faculty who aren’t actually hospital employees. But our work does have a purpose: to find ways to better understand movement/neurological disorders in order to ultimately help improve rehabilitation medicine – and thus help all the patients that come through the hospital. These past few weeks have been filled with tedious grant submission tasks; it’s easy to lose track of why it’s important. It’s not just money we’re looking for – it’s the research questions we’re asking, and how they can help people. I’m trying to use this as inspiration to get through the rest of the week leading up to our deadline on Monday. Funny how sometimes the free food can entice you to an unexpected source of motivation, when you need it the most.

team Research at the top!