Peace on Earth – Good Will to Men

It is very impressive how at the holiday season there are a few more smiles in the corridors of GBMC. We still deal with pain and the sadness that comes with illness and loss, but people’s spirits are raised as they focus on celebrating and gift –giving. In the executive office, we had our annual visit from Santa Dr. Gary Cohen and his elves from the Cancer Center and they brought joy to our day. Well wishes abound from staff members to other staff members and to patients and families.

With all of the meanness and evil that is evident in our world, we must make this time of year, especially this year, an opportunity to exhibit good will to all men and women and to have the spirit of giving lessen each other’s burden.

On behalf of the organization, I want to extend best wishes for a safe, healthy and happy holiday season for those celebrating Christmas, Kwanzaa or Hanukkah.  Enjoy your time with family members and think about the things that are important in your lives.  For those staff members working during the holidays, a special “thank you” for taking care of those who aren’t able to be at home during the holiday season. I am blessed to work with all in the GBMC family and I am very grateful for this.

THANK YOU!
This year GBMC had the privilege of teaming up with WMAR Baltimore to collect toys and donations for the 18th annual “It’s Kindertime Toy Drive.” 

Over the last three weeks, many of you have donated gifts at various drop-off boxes in our main GBMC Hospital campus and at each of our 10 primary care offices. To help promote the toy drive, people who donated towards the cause were entered into a raffle to win either two (2) pre-screening tickets to Star Wars; Rogue One, a BB-8 Talking Figure or a Star Wars Legendary Jedi Master Yoda Figure.

I just want to thank the hundreds of employees and their families along with the many donors who helped contribute to the toy drive. The toys were distributed, by ABC2, to children and families living on the Eastern Shore, Baltimore City, Baltimore, Carroll, Cecil, Harford, Howard and Anne Arundel Counties, and at the Ronald McDonald House and Kennedy Krieger.

Again, I am very grateful to Nick Travelstead, committee chair for our Father’s Day 5K, who provided us with a group of his employees to load one of his vehicles to transport all the toys to WMAR-TV, and our Marketing Department who ran the drive for us. It is outstanding to see so many people give back during the holidays.