Radiating Kindness: Making Holiday Cards for Elderly Mass General Patients


Gary Boas

Members of the Laboratories for Computational Neuroimaging (LCN) embraced the spirit of the season at their holiday party in December. Over hot cider and other seasonal treats, they made cards for elderly patients at Massachusetts General Hospital who were not able to go home for the holidays as well as for patients in hospice.

“When I think about our work over the years — the data and samples we have received to study or help collaborators investigate aging, Alzheimer’s, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), traumatic brain injury (TBI), tumors, etc. — we are often a research endpoint or repository but rarely have the opportunity to interact with patients who provide us with data,” says LCN lab manager Allison Stevens, who also organized the event. “This is a way for us to reach out and offer support more generally to a vulnerable population who can benefit from a touch of kindness and humanity.”

Allison worked with the aptly named Happiness Committee in the Mass General Department of Medicine, who distributed the many festive cards to the patients. She says she is hoping to make the card-making and -giving effort an annual tradition.

View photos from the holiday party in the slideshow below.