Who is coming on the Mission?
Our goal is to have a delegation of SoaringChampions from around the country. The participants will include working professionals who are coming with co-workers and forming company teams; parents and children (children 9 years and older are welcome to join us on the trip); teens who are coming with a parent, lots of friends and an advisor from school; college students; individuals of all ages; and senior citizens who are young at heart. Basically anyone who wants to do something fun and meaningful to make a difference for the children of New Orleans is welcome to join us on the Mission.

What is the arrangement for meals?
Soaringwords will be providing healthy food for Friday night, Saturday breakfast, lunch and Awards dinner Saturday night, Sunday brunch. There will be vegetarian and kosher food available. We will have water bottles at all of the events. We recommend that you bring food for the flights.

What is the pogram/itinerary?
We recommend volunteers fly in on May 8th. The program starts early morning on May 9th.

• Soaringwords Educational Outreach program where 250 students will be embraced by the volunteers. This Parish was devastated by the storm. These programs will inspire the students to heal. Everyone will decorate SoaringQuilts® and SoaringPillows® to donate to hospitalized children in New Orleans who have been affected by Hurricane Katrina.

• Everyone will enjoy a SoaringSmiles workshop led by Stephen Bennett, (theportraitpainter.com). Stephen’s portraits of indigenous peoples celebrate the diversity of human life. His work has been used to promote and preserve cultures in the United States, Mexico, St. Martin, Panama, French Polynesia, the Seychelles, Tanzania, Namibia, Borneo and Australia. He has led Soaringwords workshops for hospitalized children to inspire them to heal and to help others.

• Soaringwords Hospital Outreach program where children at West Jefferson Medical Center (in-patients and patients who are being treated in outpatient clinics) will benefit from visitors and the gift of special SoaringQuilts® and SoaringPillows® with personalized messages and artwork.

• Soaringowrds Nia Dance Jam.

• Awards dinner.

• Fun and sight-seeing.

How will we get around New Orleans, is it safe? Do I need to rent a car?
This is the fourth time that Soaringwords is visiting New Orleans. The City is totally safe. Our hotel, the local schools, and hospitals are quick and easy to get to, and it is easy to get into town from the airport.

Where will we be staying?
French Quarter Marriott hotel has set aside limited amount of rooms for Soaringwords' delegation. Click here to reserve your room at a discounted price. Soaringwords group code is 'soasoaa'

I don’t know if I would be comfortable visiting a child in the hospital. Maybe it would be awkward?
Everyone on the Soaringwords New Orleans Healing Mission will have the opportunity to have hospital visits with children and families and donate the SoaringQuilts, SoaringPillows, puppets, signs, and messages created from children and communities nationwide. We will be there to guide you and make sure your visits are comfortable and upbeat.

However, if you are not comfortable visiting patients on the hospital floor, there will be plenty of opportunities to boost the spirits of children from the community. These kids from the community will be joining us at a special SoaringCelebration in the hospital lobby. We’ll have magicians, clowns, and face-painters. You can help us run these experiences which will brighten the children’s spirits.

We have shared the Soaringwords Hospital Outreach visits with thousands of volunteers in many hospitals around the country and believe that it will be a very positive and special memory for you, your friends, co-workers and your family. Children over 9 years old are invited to visit with patients too. The hospitalized kids love seeing other kids, it really lifts their spirits.

About Soaringwords

What is Soaringwords mission?
Soaringwords’ mission is to empower communities to embrace ill children and families and inspire them to “never give up!” Doctors and hospitals provide medical care, while Soaringwords provides in-person and online support that boosts self-esteem and helps reduce isolation. These fun, creative and educational healing activities include: story telling, poetry, art, songs, photography.

Each year it is estimated that 18% of all children in the U.S. suffer from chronic illness. (Source: American Academy of Pediatrics). This means that each year 22 million children and their families and friends, potentially 66 million people in all, face the challenges of catastrophic illness. Doctors and hospitals provide medical care, while Soaringwords provides in-person and online support that boosts self-esteem and helps reduce isolation. These fun, creative and educational healing activities include: story telling, poetry, art, songs, photography and many others.

How is Soaringwords different from other pediatric charities?
Soaringwords is unique because we inspire hospitalized kids to “pay it forward” and do something positive to help other ill children. We also motivate healthy kids and adults to do something to benefit hospitalized children.

The Soaringwords Resource Center (www.soaringwords.org) was designed differently – it provides a warm, fun and engaging online destination to complement traditional medical care. Its six unique sections are designed to connect the user, child or adult, to their inner-strength and to encourage them to become an essential part of their personal healing. Soaringwords community is a place that kids, adults will meet other people.

Whereas many organizations provide video games and other interactive activities to “distract” children from pain, Soaringwords offers therapeutic tools that boost children’s self-esteem by inviting them to actively create and share personal thoughts, writing, artwork and messages to help other ill children find comfort and be part of a community.

What does Soaringwords do?
(1) The Soaringwords Resource Center, www.soaringwords.org, allows hospitalized kids and healthy kids to spend hours doing fun and therapeutic activities. Soaringwords.org has over 1,000 pages of expert content from the “best of the best” in mind-body wellness, counselors and educators.
(2) Soaringwords Hospital Outreach programs allow ill children and families to spend hours enjoying activities that pass the time, boost self-esteem and harness creativity through literacy, art, and creative expression. Working closely with child life specialists, nurses and doctors, Soaringwords provides patients and families with therapeutic tools to help children express themselves through writing and expressive arts.
(3) Soaringwords Educational Outreach programs are in-school and after-school community service programs based on innovative Soaringwords lesson plans, five-week units, nine-month curricula, and special assemblies for grades kindergarten to 12.
(4) The Soaringwords Youth Leaders Initiative is a national community service program. Ill and healthy children become Youth Leaders and commit to weekly, monthly, or quarterly Soaringwords community service projects.

How Soaringwords was born?
Lisa Honig Buksbaum started Soaringwords six years ago to help families facing chronic and catastrophic illness. The inspiration for the organization came after her only sibling died of an asthma-induced heart-attack, and her father and son became seriously ill, all in a ten-month period. After experiencing the isolation and despair often associated with serious illness, Lisa decided to close her successful 11 year old marketing firm and devote the rest of her life to helping ill children and families to ‘Never give up.’ When Lisa was in the hospital with her family there were so many things they needed to help them cope. They didn’t exist. She was determined to create a charity that would bridge the gap to make things easier for families faced with serious illness. Today, her father and son are fully recovered and over the past six years, Soaringwords has helped over 150,000 ill children and families. Now it’s your turn to become part of Soaringwords and inspire ill kids to heal.

Still have questions? You can contact us: Heal@soaringwords.org or 212-290-7627, make the subject line Soaringwords New Orleans Healing Mission

Watch video footage and read testimonials from last years New Orleans Mission.

French Quarter Marriott hotel has set aside limited amount of rooms for Soaringwords' delegation. Click here to reserve your room at a discounted price. Soaringwords group code is 'soasoaa'

Save your spot on the Delegation today. Click here to fill out registration form (you can also download the form)