High on caffeine, nerves and excitement

Editor's note: Elizabeth Williams has been leading MUSC's Angel Tree efforts for 14 years. This year will be her last time to serve as "chief elf." Volunteer Services' program coordinator Melissa Kubu will take over. Williams wrote the following piece to say thank you to everyone who has helped her make the holidays a little brighter for children throughout the Lowcountry.

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It’s a foggy morning in December, and I am pacing Ehrhardt Street. My mind is racing with hundreds of details. Who is due to show up now and who can I expect later? Where should I place them? Who can I connect to make their experience today even better? Who needs some extra attention this year and maybe a pep talk or a hug?

I’m high on caffeine, nerves and excitement when suddenly I hear it. It starts off with a low, melancholy rumble and builds into what can be best described as a wail. I peek around the corner of Ehrhardt onto Bee Street and see through the fog two pipers, dressed in kilts, playing on the corner. It’s the bagpipers warming up. It is the beginning of a series of events that will build all day and stir emotions in everyone who comes out to witness it. It is the MUSC Angel Tree Parade day.

And it is magical.

The magic began in 2003. The transplant program manager asked me to find a family to adopt for the holidays. I called the Salvation Army and they connected me with a grandmother, living around the corner from our offices, who was singlehandedly raising her three young grandchildren. By sheer coincidence, they had connected me to a woman who had not only been a nurse at MUSC, but had also been at the forefront of the 1960s campus demonstrations for better pay and treatment. All she had asked for was warm blankets for herself and and her grandchildren. Our department showered her with holiday love, and it took me two trips in a minivan to deliver it all.

The next year I asked for more angels from the Salvation Army and casually walked them around campus seeing if any other departments would be interested. I had requested people drop off their angel tags and gifts in the Horseshoe at noon on the first Friday in December. I remember standing in the Horseshoe at noon with my coworkers worrying whether anyone would show up. But then the revolving doors of the hospital started turning. Employees started pouring out carrying bags of gifts and pushing hospital carts filled with toys. Some were dressed in their Christmas sweaters and wearing festive hats and others were riding bikes and singing Christmas carols. The common denominator was everyone’s ear-to-ear grins. I must have hugged and cried a million times over that year. The response was more than I ever could have  imagined. We had to request a 14-foot truck, and we filled it until it would barely close.  

After that, I began hanging angels on the walls of the main hospital. Nearly every morning, the walls would be empty. In 2009, I was standing in the ART lobby when I noticed someone had donated a violin, and it was under the Christmas tree. One of our MUSC administrators walked over and began playing "The First Noel." The notes drifted up and must have reached the heavens because, as has happened every year, magic showed up. Inexplicably, I happened across an angel card where a young boy was asking for a violin, so he could learn to play and get in a better school. (As an aside, Channel 5 followed up the next year, and he did!)

I will never forget television anchor Debi Chard becoming speechless and holding back tears while live on camera as she watched our employees fill the Horseshoe with toys.  Ambulatory Medicine began looking for ways to make money all year long, and they used it to buy toys and bikes. Lots and lots of bikes. They begin riding those bikes from Calhoun Street to the Horseshoe, all decked out in Christmas finery. Our MUSC grounds crew stepped in to handle all the toys. They offered their golf carts and trailers for transport. I will never forget the first time they pulled up. They all had all dressed in Christmas costumes and had decorated their carts and trailers with greenery, bows, and other Christmas decor. These two groups planted the seed that eventually became the Angel Tree Parade.   

Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise that MUSC employees would step up in such a big way when asked. Our employees have the biggest hearts. MUSC became the single biggest support of the Angel Tree in the Lowcountry and eventually in the entire Southeast. In 2009, I realized it was too much for one person to organize, and the MUSC Angel Board was formed. With the help of Volunteer Services, we picked a few dozen of MUSC’s finest employees. Today the board consists of approximately 40 outstanding people, both on and off campus, who exemplify the MUSC mission. They are the backbone of this event and have made it one of the wildest, most fun, most diverse, events on campus. 

In 2011, I received an email from a fellow employee. He told me he had a parade float business on the side and wondered if we would be interested in a few floats for our parade. Why yes! Herman Allan has provided floats every year since then, with an “as many as you need” attitude. All at his own expense. A few years ago, after Herman’s wife passed away (she was also an employee here at MUSC, as well as a cancer patient at Hollings Cancer Center), the grounds crew honored her memory by planting and dedicating a tree in her name. Her family rode one of the floats that year and let us love them in their grief.

Also in 2011, I received word that one of our critically ill patients was a mother who had promised to take her daughter to Disney when she was discharged from the hospital. I was told the mother’s time was limited, and she likely wouldn’t make it out of the hospital. I sent an email out to the board wondering if we could do anything special for the little girl. Within minutes I received a response.

One of my board members also had also lost her mother at that age. She told me she remembered every kindness shown to her during that time, and she was going to make our parade day something that little girl would never forget. She contacted the Disney organization and got them to overnight a full Cinderella costume and glass slippers. The only hitch was it would be delivered to Myrtle Beach. Our board member left work early and drove through a torrential storm to get that costume. Word got out about this little girl, and donations began pouring in. We were offered a Cinderella horse-drawn carriage, a woman’s Cinderella costume, hair and makeup services and dozens of yellow roses for her to hand out.

I knew of one woman tall enough and blonde enough, to wear the costume: one of our Hollings nurses. On the morning of the parade, the little girl was dressed up in her special costume, and she and her grown-up Cinderella went to the mom’s room for an emotional visit. They came out of the elevators into the ART lobby and were blinded by camera flashes and surrounded by media. Each of the TV stations, the Post and Courier newspaper, and our Catalyst News were there.

Another little girl from that year will remain forever embedded in our memory. She was a patient at MUSC, waiting for a heart and hooked up to a very large machine, called a Berlin heart. She was dressed as Snow White and had been waiting patiently all morning in the Horseshoe for a glimpse of Cinderella. Toward the end of the parade, Cinderella pulled up, and all eyes were on her as she stepped out of the white carriage and went over to that little girl. This wasn’t just a costume any longer.  To that little girl, and everyone watching, the real Cinderella had arrived. They talked and spent time together, and Cinderella agreed to write to her. I saw the letter. On pale blue stationary that sparkled in the light, our Cinderella wrote, "When I wish upon a star tonight, I’ll wish for you a heart.”

There is something in the air on parade day. It is a special event that I’ve heard more than one person say completes their holiday each year. It is so much fun that people love to be a part of it. Early on I was approached by the Patriot Guard Riders. Among the many things these amazing people do is stand guard at military funerals. They asked if they could lead our parade. I wait at the corner for them every year. You hear the dozens of motorcycles long before you see them. As they round the corner and pull onto the street, it has become a tradition to salute them. It gives me chills every time.  

One of our first parade participants was the Burke High School drum corps. These young people show up every year and make it impossible not to smile and dance. I’m not proud to say it was a number of years before I realized they gave up their lunches each year to join us. I let our cafeteria know, and they have kindly fed these young men each year before they go back to school.

So many departments have stepped up and demonstrated MUSC excellence and heart at this event. From the beginning, Public Safety quietly stood by and stepped in when needed. When things got bigger, and a bit out of control, they stepped in and provided the organization that ensured everything ran smoothly, as well as an honor guard for our parade.

To the many employees and patients who have contributed to the Angel Tree over the years, I thank you, and more importantly, the children of the Lowcountry thank you. You have reminded all of us of the true meaning of the Christmas spirit.