Guest on the "Can Can Show" at the Minnesota Children's Hospital of Minneapolis & St. Paul

Tuesday, March 31st, I was a guest on the weekly "Can Can Show" where "The Dude" has a chosen topic and kids can call in to ask questions and win prizes. Todays topic was "Helping Others." The Dude asked the kids what they did to help others and many kids called in to give their examples. The Dude introduced me and asked me about what I had been doing to help others and surprised me by showing video clips of me and my mentee, Tyiteana dropping the ball at the Swarm game months earlier! The week before The Swarm had been there as a special guest and had dropped the video off!

Then, I read the book The Giving Tree to the kids which was one of my favorite books when I was growing up. Kids called in and asked me questions like "What is your favorite color?" Pink of course! " Do you have any kids?" "Do you like travelling?" "Where is your favorite place to visit and travel?" "Why did you want to do a pageant if you've never done a pageant?"
Then The Dude and I did a mock Pageant where I taught The Dude to walk and pose on stage, Laura & Gaston, rated him a 7 and a Q. Then we had a final question where I asked him "How do you define Integrity?", one of the questions I was asked last year by a judge...The Dude had a very long but good answer! He received a 10 and a L L for Loquacious! Then I crowned him in a very funny final moment!

The Can Can show is broadcast for one hour twice a week to all of the children staying in the hospital and since it was a very contagious time, I wasn't allowed to see any of the children other than the ones who attended the show. A sobering moment for me was when a Child Life specialist came in with a surgery puppet who teaches children about their insides. The kids can stick needles in the puppet's arms like they get in their own and can make its tumors out of playdough. That is why they are there, but it was still jarring to realize that that is what these kids are facing everyday.