Children’s Miracle Network Miracle Party

Original report by: Tim Levan, Echo Base

On March 18, Echo Base and Garrison Carida once again answered the call to provided a bunch of very special young people a fun day they will never forget.

The Miracle Party is an annual event conducted by the Children’s Miracle Network of Central Pennsylvania. It quite simply is a day for these kids, and their families, to put aside their struggles and challenges and just have fun and be treated like celebrities. They get to participate in carnival games complete with stuffed animal prizes which were donated from the AHL Hershey Bears Hockey Club, enjoy free popcorn and cotton candy, plus each child is presented with a gift donated by the York Harley Davidson Association. Oh and they get a fully catered lunch as well.

Unfortunately the party is scheduled on a weekday making it difficult for many members of both groups to participate due to their work schedules, but despite that it always seem, somehow, members always answer the call and staff a full contingent of characters. Which, in my eyes is why we are who we are.

The mission at this event is to basically hang out and look cool, do our usual meet and greet and Photo Ops. We stand at parade rest at the front of the banquet hall while the kiddos get called up one at a time to receive their gifts. Then everyone eats lunch, which gives us a chance to rest up in preparation for the big show, A Star Wars Dance a Thon with all of the miracle kids and their families. The kids have a great time and the parents all line up with their personal recording devices and it looks a little like a mob of paparazzi when we get jammin’.

We had a great group of characters and this year, Garrison Carida was humbled by the awesome duo of R2-D2 and C-3PO; joining Chewbacca who is always a big hit at the party.

The squires did great taking pics and making sure we didn’t step on any of the kiddos who were just running around having a great time. I’m really looking forward to the pics that Becky and Patti took. It was also great that Jonas Commero took the day off school to help out as well.

Our event host Sue Deaven was very grateful for our continued enthusiastic support and provided event t-shirts to everyone as a thank you. From what I heard from Carida, that there is a very good chance this will be the last year for this event as CMN looks to go a different direction, though no word on that specifically yet. I will keep everyone posted.

I wish to thank our members: Marty, Wesley, and Dan for supporting of Children’s Miracle Network here in Central PA.

I for one would also thank Mike Bryant for the mission report. Plus, I am looking forward to the Annual CMN Carnival at Penn State Hershey Medical Center in June.

Photos: Courteously by Becky Staley
Video: Courteously by WGAL