It has become something bigger than the Wallers.
Not only is it a way to find some meaning in all of “this” — their son’s terminal illness — but it also is an attempt to grasp something positive out of something so “unhappy,” Lyman Briggs associate professor John Waller said.
These are some of the objectives he and his wife, Abigail, have when it comes to their nonprofit organization — the Art for Charlie Foundation.
The Wallers started the foundation several months ago when coping with their 4-year-old son’s brain cancer.
About a year and a half ago, at the age of 2, Charlie Waller was diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG, a type of terminal, inoperable brain cancer that has a short life expectancy.
Around last January, the idea behind the foundation surfaced when the grief-stricken Wallers noticed a lack in pediatric hospice services in Greater Lansing, Charlie’s mother, Abigail Waller, said.
Last night, the Wallers were able to gather with family and friends to support their cause.
At Art for Charlie, an art show and silent auction, part of the proceeds are expected to fund new pediatric hospice and palliative care initiatives, and the remainder is expected to go to the foundation. The foundation looks to support and heal bereaved families, Abigail Waller said.
In the future, Abigail Waller said she hopes the foundation will highlight other children and their families’ stories.
“Ultimately, we wanted to focus on something bigger, and we love the idea that this is a community event,” she said at the event.“We feel like we’re doing some good, and I think that will help the pain ahead and will bring some meaning to all of this.”
More than 100 community members attended the elaborate event that featured hundreds of pieces of art and other items for the silent auction.
Prices for the donated art ranged from a couple of dollars to more than $2,000 and included donations to the silent auction from high-profile community members, such as MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon and MSU men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo.
“I think it’s been psychologically important to feel that you are doing something constructive, particularly when there is … no medicine that you can take,” John Waller said prior to the event.
In the last several months, the Wallers have adjusted their focus on coping with Charlie’s brain cancer.
“There are two ways you can take this,” John Waller said. “We can feel we can improve the situation by enriching Charlie’s life on a day-to-day basis and also by channeling out our feelings into a foundation that can be (for) a broader use.”
When searching for a greater support system within the community, the Wallers agreed that there were not many resources for them to reach out to when coping with their child’s illness.
Although Sparrow medical officials said the “seed” of this was planted some time ago, the Waller family and their journey was the “inspiration” that has “expedited” the process.
“It’s something that they hang on to in terms of trying to make this awful situation in their life make any kind of sense — that something is available for other children and families because of their experience and their emotional journey through this difficult time,” Michelle Wiseman, director of the Sparrow Hospice and Palliative Care Services, said.
Wiseman said the new initiatives are a “bridge between the hospice and the pediatric departments.”
In the program, the pediatric nurses have been trained to care for their patients in a hospice setting.
Although the program still is in the developmental stages, it is set to be finalized by the end of this calendar year, Wiseman said.
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Medical Director of the Sparrow Children’s Center Dr. Stephen Guertin was a speaker at Thursday evening’s event. He was the doctor who initially diagnosed Charlie Waller with his illness.
Guertin, who also is an associate professor of pediatrics in MSU’s College of Human Medicine, said prior to the event that credit for this program goes to the pediatric nurses who wanted to continue working for children in hospice care and to the Waller family.
“What’s remarkable about (this) is that … in the middle of all that, the family decided that it is important (to) them and for him that they support children’s services,” Guertin said. “I am really just so impressed by the selflessness of this, and the other reason it is so important to me: what the Wallers are doing is that, to some extent, it’s not only acknowledging that we can do wonderful things in this community … it largely justifies us. It largely justifies, (and) it confirms that what we are doing here is of value.”
_Staff writer Derek Blalock contributed to this report. _
