116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Mercy’s Medical Center’s gratitude tree grows in popularity this holiday season
Use of the tree quickly expanded from staff to patients and their loved ones
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A large tree with fall-colored leaves decorating its branches might seem out of place among the red and green seasonal colors of Christmas or the blue, white and silver of Hanukkah. But the 8-foot wooden gratitude tree installed in the lobby of Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids last month has been so popular that it will stay up until the end of the year to inspire gratitude and connection.
The year-end holidays can be a tough time to be hospitalized, have a loved one who is ill or injured or work long shifts caring for patients when everyone else seems to be celebrating and enjoying time off.
Each of the tree’s colorful paper leaves carries a handwritten note expressing something or someone a staff member, volunteer, patient, or visitor is grateful for.
Six-year-old Maddy noted, “All the new healthy babies in our family.” Another child wrote, “My PS5 and Xbox.”
Quite a few leaves express thankfulness for family and friends. Colleagues and staff from various clinics or hospital departments are named. Several say gratitude for good health or simply being alive. Other paper leaves mention simple pleasures such as Diet Coke, a warm bed or dogs.
“The cool thing about this project is that it went from a fun idea to having the administration say, ‘Let’s open this to everybody’ to have a positive impact,” Mercy hospitalist Dr. Derrick Alger said.
He leads monthly huddles with the hospitalist team. November’s word was gratitude. Many studies have found that gratitude also helps ease depression and anxiety.
“Being in health care, whenever I’ve needed a little guidance or things are tough, I pick up a gratitude practice,” Alger said. “Medicine can be challenging, and gratitude can help you manage stress.”
He said that gratitude is an affirmation of goodness, a feeling, an attitude.
“It’s affirming that there are good things to be grateful for,” Alger said.
Gratitude is like a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it becomes, Alger said. Alger thought of adapting a metal gratitude tree that he and his wife, Kylie (a wellness columnist for The Gazette), and their kids use at home for their gratitude practice. Then inspiration hit: more hospital staff could participate if he made the tree big enough.
He ran the idea past hospital administration, and they liked the idea so much a process was created to allow all departments and area clinics to add leaves to the tree.
Mercy President & CEO Dr. Timothy Quinn said the initiative celebrates the holiday season and strengthens community. The tradition may continue.
“The Gratitude Tree has been a wonderful addition to our 10th Street lobby, creating a place where heartfelt messages of thanks bring joy to all who pass by,” said Quinn. “It’s inspiring to see so many people take a moment to contribute or pause to read the leaves — it truly reflects the spirit of the season.”
Although he doesn’t consider himself a woodworker, Alger admits to sometimes “playing with tools in the garage” to relieve stress. He bought a sheet of plywood, found an image that would work as a pattern and cut out an 8-foot tree. It became a family project: his kids got excited to help paint it, and his in-laws helped put it together.
He checks the tree every shift to read new gratitudes and takes a photo to see how the tree has progressed. These expressions are a way to acknowledge that the hospital may not be where staff want to be, but they’re happy patients are getting care.
“I made it so it could stay on a base or be taken down. I hope that it would be a yearly thing, a fun thing to do so people would know in November the Gratitude Tree will be put up,” Alger said.
“Even if you fall off (the habit), it’s something you can pick up. There’s never a bad time to be grateful.”
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