• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Breezy Mama

...a breath of fresh air

  • The Breeze
  • Mother Health
  • Gear
  • Sunny Style
  • Delish Dish
  • For Kids Entertainment

maddie james foundation

It’s Time! The Maddie James Seaside Learning Center is Here!

May 2, 2013 By Alex

The Ota Family at the 2nd Annual Mile for Maddie walk
The Ota Family at the 2nd Annual Mile for Maddie

It’s been two years since 5-year-old Maddie James captured the hearts of the nation with her love of the ocean and the animals living in it. For those of you who have been long time Breezy readers, you’ll remember how Maddie’s life tragically ended when an inoperable tumor was found. As soon as she heard the devastating news, her mother, Kajsa, knew that she wanted Maddie’s legacy to live on with Dana Point’s the Ocean Institute. Kajsa was determined to have their new building, the Seaside Learning Center, be named after her little girl; she just needed one million dollars to make that dream a reality. The dream became the community’s dream, and then spread. . . to town after town, into various states, and then nation was caught up in the love of Maddie James. In three short months, one million dollars was raised, and the Maddie James Seaside Learning Center became a reality.

On May 18, 2013, the Maddie James Seaside Learning Center will be [Read more…] about It’s Time! The Maddie James Seaside Learning Center is Here!

Filed Under: The Breeze Tagged With: Maddie James, maddie james foundation, mile for maddie, Ocean Institute

Two mothers. Two daughters. One love.

September 29, 2011 By Alex

Lene' (left) and Kajsa celebrate after the million dollar mark was reached at The Maddie James Foundation's Reaching for the Sea Stars Gala.

The past eight months have been somewhat of a blur for Kajsa James, mother of Maddie, who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in January and passed away eight weeks later in March of this year.  Between processing her daughter’s sudden and fatal diagnosis, and co-founding the Maddie James Foundation, which raised $1 million dollars in less than three months to secure the naming rights to the soon-to-be built Maddie James Seaside Learning Center at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, CA, certain things have gotten lost in the chaos.  Other memories are crystal clear.

[Read more…] about Two mothers. Two daughters. One love.

Filed Under: The Breeze Tagged With: autism causes, autism in children, autism programs, autism spectrum quotient, autism support, brain stem cancer, brain stem tumor, children with autism, Dana Point, Hope 4 Hanna, Hope for Hanna, maddie james foundation, maddie james seaside learning center, Ocean Institute, pontine glioma, tumor in the brain stem, what is DIPG

Maddie James: A Little Girl Who Captivated a Nation

May 24, 2011 By Alex

The big night is here. Photo by JeffreyFriend.com.

This past Friday, at the Reaching for the Sea Stars Gala, The Maddie James Foundation realized their goal of raising one million dollars for the naming rights to the new Seaside Learning Center at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point. We watched the sea turtle fill up as the night progressed, and as it turned a complete silk aqua; I couldn’t help but reflect on the past few months.

As those of you who have been following Maddie’s story know, the five-year-old was diagnosed with an inoperable tumor called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) on January 16, 2011 and given 6 months to live. Her short life ended eight weeks later. [Read more…] about Maddie James: A Little Girl Who Captivated a Nation

Filed Under: The Breeze Tagged With: brain tumor, charity dinners, charity fundraisers, dana point festival of whales, Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, dipg, double tree in dana point, laguna cliffs mariott, maddie james foundation, malignant brain tumor, ocean institute expansion plans, ocean intitute, pediatric cancer, reaching for the sea stars gala, ritz carlton, sea turtles, seaside learning center, st regis, what is DIPG

Madeleine Reese James: June 11, 2005 – March 13, 2011

March 17, 2011 By Alex

For eight weeks I never put my phone down. For eight weeks I kept the phone by my bed as I slept. And then, exactly on that eighth week, I got the call. Kajsa’s name popped up on the screen. Since we had been communicating purely through texts and emails, I knew this was it. I took a deep breath and answered the phone, “Hello?” “Hi, it’s me. Maddie passed this evening.” “Oh Kajsa . . .” and the tears just flowed down my cheeks.

The week prior, Maddie had a rough day. It was a Friday, and she was experiencing full body seizures. Our dear, dear friend, Alison, was there as it happened. The hospice nurse explained to Alison what was going in layman’s terms–essentially, Maddie’s brain was shutting down, but her body wasn’t ready to, so her body was trying to jolt the brain awake with the seizures. Thankfully, these seizures never caused any pain, and the hospice nurse was finally able to get the right dosage of medications to calm Maddie down, and she drifted into a peaceful state. They didn’t know if she’d [Read more…] about Madeleine Reese James: June 11, 2005 – March 13, 2011

Filed Under: The Breeze Tagged With: brain tumor, dana point festival of whales, Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, dipg, festival of whales parade, maddie james foundation, malignant brain tumor, ocean institute expansion plans, ocean intitute, pediatric cancer, sea turtles, seaside learning center, what is DIPG

Explaining Death to Children

March 7, 2011 By Alex

Kieran and I created this burial site for Coco the Goldfish.

This past November, Coco the Goldfish passed away after five long years of living in the Ota household. I got Coco in January of 2005 as “decoration” for an open house that we had at work. (It was an Asian theme, and we placed goldfish in bowls all around the office.) Everyone kept one, and eventually, each fish had died, except Coco. When I left, Coco came with me (after being babysat by Jaime while I was on maternity leave), and had been a part of our life ever since. Let me explain that further–for my five year old son Kieran, Coco had been there his entire life. Which brings me back to the beginning–Coco died in November and my husband and I were not prepared for the grief that Kieran felt. Endless crying, constantly asking questions about what happened to Coco now, telling everyone he encountered that Coco died–the guy was clearly affected. Today, he’s okay. However, if Kieran experienced this type of grief with his fish, I am afraid to see what will happen when his good friend Maddie will no longer be with us. This time, I want to be prepared in explaining what happened. So, Breezy Mama went to expert Russell P. Friedman, Executive Director of The Grief Recovery Institute Educational Foundation, Inc. and co-author of THE GRIEF RECOVERY HANDBOOK for help on how to explain death to children.

From Russell P. Friedman:

We [The Grief Recovery Institute Educational Foundation, Inc.] are co-authors of When Children Grieve, which bears the sub-title, “For Adults to Help Children deal with Death, Divorce, Pet Loss, Moving and Other Losses.” It is not actually a book for children, but for anyone who has a custodial relationship with children.

As a generality, children fall into three broad categories when it comes to dealing with death. Up until age 5,  or  6, and in some cases slightly older, most children [Read more…] about Explaining Death to Children

Filed Under: How to Parent Tips Tagged With: children's books on death, explaining death to children, how to explain death when you are not religious, how to explain to a child when a friend is dying, Inc., maddie james foundation, Russell P. Friedman, THE GRIEF RECOVERY HANDBOOK, The Grief Recovery Institute Educational Foundation, what to say when someone dies, WHEN CHILDREN GRIEVE - For Adults to Help Children Deal with Death

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Let’s Get Social

facebook twitter-2 google-plus youtube pinterest instagram
Breezy Mama

As Seen On:

Picture 1

Chelsea_Gladden_BreezyMama

Screen Shot 2015-09-10 at 1.57.16 PM

See more here!

Copyright © 2023 BreezyMama.com | ForKidsEntertainment.com