Making Vacation Time Pay Off
Eight-year-old Emily Coleman's first wish was to be a princess.
So, Michelle Coleman asked her daughter what her second wish would be if she could wish for anything in the world.
She said she wanted to go to Walt Disney World.
Last summer, Coleman, administrative coordinator for Duke University Medical Center's Division of Laboratory
Animal Resources, sent this wish to the Make-a-Wish Foundation® on behalf of Emily, who suffers from Juvenile
Rheumatoid Arthritis, a disease resulting in inflamed and swollen joints that are often stiff and painful. While not life-
threatening, the condition is a chronic, life-altering illness that Emily must live with every day.
After interviewing the Coleman family, the Make-a-Wish Foundation® called in September to say that the whole
family would be going to Walt Disney World for a week during the Christmas holiday. While Emily
was about to realize the magic of Disney's famous line, "a wish is a dream that your heart
makes," her parents still had to grapple with some very practical issues. While the foundation
picked up all the expenses for the trip, Coleman could not afford to take time off without pay.
"If I didn't have vacation time, we couldn't have done it," Coleman said. "We knew bills would be
waiting for us when we came back. Duke's vacation is a really good benefit. It's easy
to take vacation for granted, but my husband used to work for a company that didn't provide
any paid vacation."
Coleman took a week and a half of vacation time to help make her daughter's dream come true.
"We had a wonderful week with our three children," Coleman said. "Emily was able to go and have fun
for as long as she could each day. It was more than anyone could have ever hoped to get. It was truly
a blessing for our family. And the best part is that I was still getting paid the whole time. When I came back,
the check was already in the bank."
While dreams may come in many shades of color, Duke's vacation benefit for University and Medical
Center staff or Paid Time Off (PTO) benefit for Health System staff has served as the magic to help
many of them come true.
For instance, Monette Mabolo, a nurse manager at Duke Raleigh Hospital, spent three weeks
of PTO this year traveling with her husband to Hawaii and her childhood home in the Philippines that
she left about 20 years ago.
"This was only my second time going back home," said Mabolo, who has worked as a nurse within the Duke
University Health System for the last nine years. "When you travel that far, it's really not worth it unless you can take
at least three weeks off."
In Hawaii, Mabolo and her husband spent a week climbing an extinct volcano, swimming at Waikiki
Beach, exploring the lush North Shore, and visiting the USS Arizona Memorial.
The couple then spent two weeks in the Philippines visiting family and friends and shopping
in the cities of Baguio and Tagaytay.
"It was a memorable vacation," Mabolo said, "and it was extra sweet as it was my husband's gift to
me for our 24th wedding anniversary."
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