Every day, Celeste manages the travel of hundreds of families during the year. She becomes a lifeline when there is an emergency, a change in treatment plans, and when she on-boards a new family.
Our Program Manager, Celeste Hall, coordinates travel and lodging for our families traveling to and from the hospital for their child’s cancer treatment. She arranged travel for 264 families last year, up from 135 families the previous year. She says the best part of assisting more families is, “Getting to help more kids while working with new hospital staff and problem solving (transportation) in different areas”
Celeste has an incredible ability to manage all of our children, care for them with compassion, and is an expert onboarding new families into the Compass to Care family. Traveling can be stressful, especially to the hospital for your child’s cancer treatment, and she uses her calm and professional approach to ease the stress for these moms and dads. She speaks Spanish and English and works closely with hospital staff to translate travel arrangements in other languages. She says some elements of her role are similar from one family to the next, while travel in different areas in the United States offers unique challenges.
Families traveling for their child’s cancer treatment in New York experience different challenges then families traveling in North Dakota. A child with cancer often has a weakened immune system and it’s especially important to provide them with a safe and clean mode of transportation. Celeste says utilizing Uber in big cities, like New York city, provides a clean and efficient travel solution that brings our families door to door. For South Dakota families traveling long distances to treatment, lodging assistance is most impactful. Whatever the challenge, Celeste will ensure every child in our program gets to where they need, on time every time, to ensure they have the best chance at reaching remission.