Kyle Garafolo

DOS 773 - Clinical Practicum III

October 10, 2019

Employer Volunteer Opportunity: Cancer Survivor Day

This semester I was honored to volunteer at a local event hosted by my clinical
organization, Northwestern Medicine. Every year, Northwestern Medicine hosts a Cancer
Survivor Day event at the Kane County Cougars baseball game, located at Northwestern
Medicine Field in Geneva, Illinois. The Kane County Cougars are a Class-A minor league
baseball affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks and have been providing entertainment to the
western suburbs of Chicago since 1991. One interesting fact about the Kane County Cougars is
that 180 former players have since reached Major League teams. For these events, Northwestern
Medicine provides free admission to previous cancer patients and their family members as a
means to celebrate the patient’s journey to become a cancer survivor.
On the day of the event, approximately 1150 out of 7800 fans in attendance were either
cancer survivors and/or their family members. Many volunteers were needed to help with various
tasks in order to make for a successful event. Volunteer opportunities on this day included ticket
distributors (to hand out admission tickets to the patients and/or their family), way finders (to
help provide guidance to different areas within the ball park), giveaway distributors (to hand out
free Northwestern Medicine themed souvenirs), and “minglers” (to check in and socialize with
patients and/or their family). As a volunteer at this event, my task was to be a giveaway
distributor and provide free handheld Northwestern Medicine battery-operated fans to patients
and/or their family (figures 1-3).
Seating for cancer survivor patients and their family was designated to 3 large sections
throughout the outfield. Shortly after setting up my giveaway table, patients and their family
members began to enter my seating section. As patient after patient and family member after
family member began to stroll in, I quickly realized the tangible impact we as healthcare
providers have on our patients. This became very apparent when a woman and her young
children started walking toward me to receive a souvenir. After making eye contact, the woman
and I immediately recognized one another, where she then continued to call me by name and
start a conversation. This was an incredibly impactful moment for me as this woman was a
previous patient of mine (back when I was a radiation therapist within the organization) and I
had treated her nearly 2 years prior. The fact that this patient could remember me by name, even
years after last seeing her, truly demonstrates the impact we can make on our patients. All of a
sudden, I was reminded that the patients walking into this event were not just specific medical
record numbers, or even survivors of a certain disease site, but rather individual people with real
lives outside of the hospital. These are people whose lives we have permanently touched just by
being a part of it. While it may be easy to get lost in our everyday shuffle of tasks and other
responsibilities, this event resonated within me the true meaning behind the work we do.
Figure 1. Entrance to the Kane County Cougars Cancer Survivor Day Event.
Figure 2. Some of the outfield seating reserved for patients and their family members.
Figure 3. Me handing out handheld Northwestern Medicine battery-operated souvenir fans.