Dec 25, 2011
Random Act Of Kindness, Our Own Christmas Miracle. : 
As many of you know, for 2011, Friday Harbour has provided over 800 nights of free housing to visiting cancer patients/families here in Houston. There is such an abundant need for housing assistance, and so few resources, that we have been overwhelmed by the demand. There are some days when we’ve booked over 50-60 nights in just a couple days.
Reflecting on our mission to help as many patients as possible, we realized we needed to make a slight change to our process if we are to share our resources with as many families as possible. 

After much deliberation and thought, we recently began to cap our free night offer to a maximum of 3 nights per family per year.

This has already begun to impact our returning families, which really sucks.

I was sharing this impact with a friend of Friday Harbour’s during dinner the other evening…and she looked me in the eye and asked how can she help. Well I told her that I received an email from a patient we helped a few months ago. I told her that they were having a tough time finding alternative housing, but I had made it clear that our program change was best longterm. 

She quickly interrupted and said, I’ll be the difference maker. Christie said she’d personally sponsor this patients expenses during their holiday-week appointment. When the news was shared with the family, they could only say…what a Christmas miracle. 

It’s imperative that Friday Harbour maintains a clear process that our patients both understand and appreciate. That will not change. But there is no real process for individual generosity. Only sincere appreciation.

It’s pretty tough doing what we do here at Friday Harbour. But I continue to get those reminders that we never have to  handle it alone! 

Christy, thanks for your Christmastime random act of kindness!