Founded by Erin, Fourth & Gold officially became a 5013C non-profit organization in July 2022. Much of the team is lead by healthcare professionals that are on the frontlines of oncological practice, helping children and their families battle cancer everyday.
Superhero. Miracle worker. Angel on earth.
Those 3 words, along with many others, are words I’ve heard nurses being described. The most common one, superhero.
To be honest, it’s never resonated with me. I’ve never viewed myself as a superhero and I’ve always viewed my job just like everyone else’s… difficult at times, but could be worse, right? After all, 3 days on, 4 days off! Isn’t that the dream? Well… that was my opinion, until recently anyways.
0515: Alarm goes off. Get up. Mentally prepare yourself… there’s no time to be tired, you have lives in your hands.
0615: Out the door. Check my phone. Text from night shift coworker, patient in 000 didn’t make it. Crap. They were one of my favorites. I can’t think about this. Cannot have clouded vision going into work. Will grieve later. Oh my heart..
0645: Shift report begins. 2 transfusions today, patient in 0025 had fevers all night. Chemo due at 4. New diagnosis coming today. Get your self together.
0700-730pm work all day. Did I pee? I think I did. Did I clock out for lunch? Wait- did I eat lunch? Can’t remember. Stomach says no. Still need to go to PICU to see my friend and their family. Not a good looking situation, praying for healing.
800pm: Drive home. Remember that text from this morning. Oh God. Why does this happen? What did we do wrong? Could I have saved them? Could I have spoken up more? Tears. So many tears.
830pm: Arrive home. Dog waiting at the door with 1,000 licks. Jump in the shower. Eat dinner at 9pm. Go to bed, will grieve when I have a day off, right? Have to be back up in the morning, can’t do this now.
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
The truth is, nurse grief is not talked about enough. And it’s real. It is so real. The things that we often see? I pray it never becomes a normal site for me. I’d never wish for you to see them, either. But nurses? We see them everyday and are expected to wake back up the next morning and return to the place we saw them.
I’d never change my job for the world. It’s my heart and soul and I firmly believe it’s what I was destined to do. The connections and the celebrations that I have with my patient and families? I’ll never forget them. The moments of happiness, excitement and relief watching a patient successfully complete treatment? The feeling is indescribable.
But it’s hard. And it’s real. And while we work our tails off to change the lives of our patients and families, we still grieve. But with grief comes healing and healing means strength. So this superhero title that we’ve been so graciously given? I’m finally wearing it with pride.
If you’re interested in hosting a stand or sponsoring our campaign, reach out to us using this contact form, and a team member will contact you directly.
***This is not our sign up form to receive a kit and host a stand!***
If you’re looking to host your own Lucy’s Lemonade Stand, filling out the form does not sign you up! Once we receive your form submission, we’ll communicate with you directly and send you a link to sign up for your stand.
1.) If you are looking to host a stand during our September campaign, stand sign ups will run June 1 through June 30th every year. We’ll ask for the date(s) you plan to host your stand in September, as well as your location, so we can help promote it and drive traffic your way. In August, we’ll send out stand kits. If you’re local to Jacksonville, we’ll host a meetup where you can pick up your kit in person.
2.) If you are looking to host a stand during our September campaign but missed our sign-up window – no worries! We order extra kits every year, so reach out to us and we will do our best to accommodate you as supplies last.
3.) If you are looking to host a stand outside of our September campaign, that is a possibility as well, depending on the amount of extra supplies remaining. Please reach out to us anytime and we will do our best to provide you with everything you need to host a stand any time of year!
Each host receives a kit designed to make your experience easy and impactful, along with a PDF guide containing everything needed to host a successful – and fun – lemonade stand. Your kit will be packed with lemonade mix, cups, straws, signage, and more. Our goal is to equip you with everything you need to raise awareness and support for pediatric cancer research. All you need to do is set up, mix the lemonade, and help spread the word.
