Cindy Millard Retires After 43 Years of Service to Shriners Children’s Portland

Shriners Children's is a unique organization for many reasons. One of those reasons that is not as publicly well-known is that many long-term employees say they love this place and can't imagine working anywhere else.

Among these employees, retiring at the end of this year, is child life specialist Cindy Millard, who started with Shriners Children's Portland in 1981 at the original 82nd Avenue and Sandy Boulevard location.

Cindy was inspired to explore child life as a career in 1982. "I met my first child life specialist and learned about various interventions and support services that could be offered to hospitalized children," said Cindy.

Some of these services, such as medical play - allowing a child to put a syringe in a doll and understand what they would experience - were new ideas at that time, and somewhat controversial, but Cindy understood the value.

"I learned to swallow my nerves and become an advocate at a time when healthcare for children was still patriarchal and rules for patients were strict and typically structured by care providers," she said.

One of Cindy's colleagues, child life specialist Molly McCarthy, BA, CCLS, spoke more about Cindy's advocacy.

"Cindy has ensured that the specialized skills and training of child life specialists are visible and present in the hospital," Molly said, "including advocacy, trauma-informed care, child development education for the medical team and providing psychosocial care of children in the hospital setting."

One of Cindy's favorite parts of her job is helping patients and their families overcome fears. "I know how important 'hands-on' teaching and demonstration of medical procedures are in demystifying misconceptions and helping to reduce fears for children and their families, like showing the process of how an IV is inserted into a doll and what to expect," Cindy said.

Cindy also enjoys helping empower children and their families to advocate for their personalized methods of coping, and collaborating with all members of the healthcare team to develop specialized care plans to achieve the best outcomes.

During her time at the first Shriners Children's location in Portland, Cindy had many interesting experiences. She recounted a story about a day when staff members decided to bring patients to the lawn behind the hospital on a sunny day.

"The back of the hospital had luscious green lawns and cemented pathways for walking and wheelchairs to move freely. One bright sunny day we thought how great it would be to move the patients outside. We're talking wheelchairs, kids on crutches, patients on bed rest (beds had wheels), etc," Cindy said. "Almost all of the patients had plaster casts, so it was quite the endeavor moving the 20-plus patients outside. Once the last patient was situated in the sunshine near the grass, the automatic sprinkler system kicked on! The mad rush was on to get the plaster-cast patients away from the spraying water!"

We thank Cindy for her tireless efforts and for touching so many lives in different ways over the years. As Molly said best, "Cindy has a heart of gold and has left a compassionate, caring imprint on so many children, families and staff members. We will forever be a better program because of her lifelong dedication to the mission and vision of the child life profession."