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Hometown ]
Hero _
Connecting
Hospitalized
Kids
When Leslie Morissette lost
her 8-year-old son Graham ro leukemia seven years
ago, she converted her grief into a good cause by pro
viding computers to other seriously ill children and
their families.
Morissette, 42, knew how important technology
was to her family during the 18 months that Graham
was confined to his home or a hospital bed. Graham
would use the family's computer for hours to draw,
stay in touch with classmates through e-mail, or get
support from other sick children in online chat rooms.
And when Graham wasn't online, his parents were,
researching his disease and learning more about treat
ments and clinical trials.
Six months after Graham died, Morissette wanted
to make sure that other families in crisis, and particu
larly their ailing children, had access to a computer,
regardless of their location or income.
In 1998, she founded Grahamtastic Connec
tion, a Springvale, Maine (pop. 3,488), nonprofit
organization that lends laptop computers and
provides free Internet access to seriously ill, hospi
talized children and their families.
A graphic art-
E-mail your friends this story ist, Morissette had
at www.americanprofile.com no experience with
a nonprofit when
she started Grahamtastic Connection, but that didn’t
matter —she substituted commitment for know-how.
Her first call was to a local radio station she had
worked with years earlier as a volunteer on a fund-rais
ing campaign for a child’s bone marrow transplant;
she thought the staff could offer guidance. They t<x>k
it further, interviewing her on the air about her plans.
Donations arrived within days.
“I didn’t realize at first how significant that first
donated computer was,” she says. “It really gave me
a focus.”
At the time, Morissette was on an extended leave
from her job at Renaissance Greeting Cards Inc. in
nearby Sanford (pop. 10,133). Now back to work as an
art director, Morissette is grateful for her employer’s
continued support. The company donates shipping fees
for the organization’s 10 laptop computers, prints fund
raising note cards showcasing Graham’s artwork, and
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Leslie Morissette provides computers to hospitalized children such as Sam Robinson, a patient at Maine Medical Center.
provides other assistance. Colleagues host yard sales
and returnable bottle collection drives to help fund
Internet access fees.
Morissette’s husband, Gary, 42, and their daugh
ters, Tiana, 22, and Deneka, 20, help by dropping
off and picking up laptops as needed. High school
technology students—including many who knew
Graham—refurbish the donated laptops and maintain
the group’s website.
Eddie Riddle, 19, a Sanford Regional Vocational
Center student who has rebuilt computers for Gra
hamtastic Connection for three years, appreciates
the opportunity to help while he learns more about
technology. Riddle recently met two families using the
Morissette lends donated laptops to honor her son, Graham.
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laptops at the Maine Medical Center in Portland.
“Seeing the kids I’m helping did a lot for me," he
explains. "It made all my issues seem so small.”
Morissette smiles when she thinks about what the
program would mean to her son. “I think he’d be very
happy,” she says, adding that Graham was the kind of
boy who always wanted to help others.
She remembers when Graham was assigned to a
hospital room near a toddler whose crying made him
feel bad for her. Graham tugged a purple clown wig
from the hospital playroom’s collection onto his bald
little head and made the child laugh.
Graham’s legacy helped 9-year-old Clarice
Diebold’s family four years ago when she was
hospitalized after receiving a stem cell transplant.
“Being able to access the Internet provided a won
derful distraction for me,” says her father, Thomas,
39- “In this situation, you have to get your mind
onto something else or you go crazy.”
Morissette understands. “My goal is to make it
as easy as possible for other families with children
experiencing life-threatening illnesses,” she says.
“I do this in my son’s honor because I know he
would be proud of me.”
Sandra Beckwith is a freelance uriter in Fairport. N.Y
For more information on Grahamtastic
Connection, call (207) 324-1139 or log on
to www.grahamtastic.org.
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