The Celebration Bell was designed and handcrafted as an original monument to serve pediatric patients at CHEO — Ottawa's pediatric hospital and research centre. It aims to serve a variety of patients with differing diagnoses, and their families, celebrating medical achievements. The Celebration Bell can be accessed under relaxed conditions in the outdoor CHEO Little Garden.

The project involved several business and community partners. The Celebration Bell was handcrafted with great care, admiration, and love for CHEO and its community. Inclusivity and accommodation served as the main inspirations for this project.

Thank you to Heather McDonnell, Manager of Home Hardware Manotick for donating the colour-matched paint for the post. Heather and her staff have provided exceptional customer service to patrons in our community during pandemic restrictions. Thank you Heather for caring and leading an excellent team of conscientious employees.

Thank you to Brent Bigelow, Owner of PlayOutdoors Canada (a subsidiary of JungleGyms Canada) for donating the solid brass bell. I purchased 20 bells of all different metals from all over the globe until I finally came across Brent's solid brass bell — designed just for kids, and available right here in Canada. One phone call and Brent understood. He allowed an exception for the charitable use of the bell for this project. Thanks Brent. It's beautiful.

Thank you to Karen Asselin, Community Member for creating the vinyl Celebration/Célébration letters. Karen works at KJP Select Hardwoods and I called to ask a zillion questions. Karen had a great deal of patience with me as I changed direction too many times. Thanks for sticking with me Karen. It turned out great.

Thank you to The Brooking Family for supporting the project and our family. Nicole Brooking was Hillary's Kindergarten teacher and has played an integral role in Hillary's survival. Her and her husband Brett, with their three sons, have helped us daily since this all began. Thank you for connecting us with the RCWO, and for supplying the beautiful fresh flowers for Hillary's celebration. The rest is just way too much to list.

Thank you to The Essex Family for their unconditional love for us and CHEO. Douglas and Estelle — my parents and Hillary's beloved Nana and Baba — are there for every appointment, every test result, and every milestone. They are there for us on the difficult days too, and that has been both inspiring and helpful to our children. This includes my brother William Essex, his wife Shannon, and their two sons, Cole and Dylan. Thank you for helping us complete this gift to our community.

The project took over six months to conceptualize, design, and handcraft. Thank you to my husband Steven McKibbin for showing respect for the process and painting and varnishing the post with such great care and patience. Thank you my darling Alyssa McKibbin for your photography, photo editing, and engineering expertise. I'm so proud that you understand the importance and value of giving back. This was a family project. Hillary was the inspiration. We are all very proud about of how it turned out.

Numerous editorials and research studies have explored the advantages and disadvantages of hospital remission bell traditions. Some studies purport that ringing the bell creates more distressing memories for the patient. Some hospitals have banned remission bells altogether, citing complaints from patients feeling hopelessness due to their ongoing prognosis, and complications caused to hospital processes.

After conducting a thorough, online, global environmental scan regarding the use of hospital remission bells, this project confidently supports the conclusion that the benefits for patients — particularly pediatric patients — seems worthy of continuing the tradition for those who opt to participate. In fact, modifying the traditional oncology remission bell to an outdoor Celebration Bell for general community use might better serve the needs of an evolving, diverse population.

Thank you to Perkins Home Building Centre in North Gower. Although my family paid for the post, we still wouldn't have bought it anywhere else. Thanks for maintaining excellent quality standards.

Thank you Ottawa Brass for producing the plaques and working through numerous proofs over several months. I will keep this extra brass plaque with Hillary's name misspelled as a keepsake. She says Hill-i-ary sounds good, too. It will go well with the 19 extra bells I have.

Thank you Dawn Pickering, Ollie's mom. Dawn told me this would work when I wasn't sure. This encouragement was very helpful. I will work on a Braille plaque, Dawn.

Thank you Sandra Naufal, Retired OCSB Teacher for offering your creativity and kindness.

Thank you Lauren Rocque, friend, for helping edit all of my thoughts and words. I make mistakes. Thank you for believing in me always.

Thank you CHEO and the CHEO Foundation, for approving this concept and guiding the project with compassion, care, and patience during a ongoing pandemic, city-wide protest, record-breaking power outage, and numerous successful CHEO campaigns of your own. You are the heartbeat of this city. Thank you for saving our children.