Journal 5

M: 8-5 T: 8-5 W: 8-5 Th: 8-5 F: 9-5 Weekly: 44 Total: 145 hours Brianna Fuller 2/15/19 Journal 5 This week I have been very busy with various projects. I began doing intake forms, worked on social worker gifts, my seeds came in the mail, I got a lot of documents in, and I had my first rush wish. I have continued to take small breaks, and I have found it is extremely impacting on my work ethic. I find that when I return, I am refreshed and ready to tackle the next tasks I have for that day. This week I also began doing intake forms for my supervisor. Intake forms are done when we have the documents, the 9-month hold is taken off, and we are ready to move to the next steps in the process. The intake form consists of various questions that we must ask the parents of the wish kids in order to proceed with the process. The questions ask if they have ever received a wish before, if they have siblings, who their parents are if they are not biological, contact information for the family, and questions regarding the wish child. As far as the wish child, we have to know their medical diagnosis, if they know about their condition, if they are able to verbalize their wish, and where they go to school. I picked up this task, so we could catch up on more files. This month we are celebrating social workers, so my supervisor asked me to come up with a little craft for them. I came up with one, and now I am waiting for approval. I would take a small piece of wood, (maybe the size of your palm), and do string art. I would take little nails and put them in the shape of a star, then take blue string and completely entangle the nails with

the string until the star is blue! Then I would complete the craft with a Make-A-Wish stamp on the bottom! This would be cheap, but a cute reminder of us when they see it! We devote a month to our social workers, because they are really important to the process of creating a wish for a child. They have many wish kids at a time, and are extremely helpful to us, so we give thanks to them each year! I ordered some sample seeds for my potential project. I made a prototype with the bereavement cards we already have, included our handwritten message along with a quote and the seeds! I have gotten approval from two supervisors, and now I am waiting on approval from the CEO! I am also still waiting on our data supervisor to pull some numbers on the average number of deaths in our pipeline. With this information, I will be able to better assess how many I would need to order for a yearly supply. I have also been receiving a lot of documents in for my wish kid’s files I have been working on. This is very important, because we cannot move forward until we have them. Also, it makes me feel like I am really making a difference when I finish as many files as I have so far! I got my first rush week this week, which was super sad yet rewarding. The rush child is two years old and has a brain tumor. Usually my supervisor would take it, but she gave me the task of taking it on. My job is to make this file my top priority. I have already made contact and sent my welcome packet and email. I have requested the documents we need and have completed the intake form as well so this can move as quickly as possible. Now, I am just waiting on the mom to send her documents in. We do rush wishes for children that cannot wait the general waiting period we have. I am excited to be doing everything I am doing here, and I can tell I am having a big impact in helping to get these files done quickly. The process takes a long time, but I have devoted myself to working really hard to help my supervisor with as many projects as I

can to help her move more quickly in her daily job duties. For example, I obtained the files from May, and sorted them into ones that are ready to come off hold, and ones that still need documents. The ones that need documents, I call and email the family requesting them again. This way when my supervisor gets back to the office she will not have to waste the time to reach out again to the families, because I will do it for her. Doing simple, but time-consuming things like that really helps her out and lets her focus on preparing the files that are ready to come off of hold and move on with their wish!