January 27, 2006

Psychiatry residents run a
"magical" race

Mickey Mouse and his cast of friends recently had some help brightening the days of young patients of the MGH Child Psychiatry Service. A group of eight MGH Child Psychiatry residents and one staff member traveled to Mickey's home in the Magic Kingdom to run the Walt Disney World half-marathon Jan. 7, raising more than $12,000 to benefit patients.

The race was the inaugural fundraising effort of the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Residents' Gifts for Ill Children (MAGIC) fund, an initiative that aims to enrich the lives of children coping with psychiatric illness. The MAGIC fund bolsters young patients'self-esteem by providing them with gifts that foster their individual strengths. "Dealing with an illness is much more bearable when individuals have a part of themselves that they feel good about," says Bill Wood, MD, an MGH Child Psychiatry resident and a runner in the race.

The other MGH runners were Child Psychiatry residents Robert Althoff, MD, PhD; Jennifer Derenne, MD; Hope Levin, MD; Vaughn Mankey, MD; Peter Newberry, MD; David Rubin, MD; Maya Strange, MD; and Sandrine Medeiros, an administrative assistant for MGH Child Psychiatry.

For more information about the MAGIC fund, contact Medeiros at (617) 726-2726 or sgmedeiros@partners.org.

Runner Hope Levin, MD, right, with her fiancé, David Taylor, MD, who proposed at the finish line.