Being stuck in the hospital is never where you want to be, but it's especially difficult in the Summer when you know other kids are outside swimming, biking, chalking up the sidewalks, etc. The past couple of years, the Rowan Jameson Windham Foundation has made this one of our gifting programs: "Indoor Summer Fun" at Methodist Children's Hospital. We buy Summer and outdoor themed books, art projects, legos, playdoh, activities, games, etc. Our hope is that the nurses and Child Life Staff can bring some of the outdoors inside for the patients, and take their mind off of where they are for even a little bit. Here are some of the gifts we were able to purchase this month for the hospital to distribute this Summer.
Can't leave out the babies so we purchased water mats and bugs, butterfly and caterpillar rattles.
Spot it games: in Splash, Adventure, Frozen "In Summer", Fish and Camping themes...
Summer reading books...
Summer themed activity books...
Pretend camping, bubble machines, and ring toss games...
We even found some Olaf "In Summer" play sets and toys:)
We had also heard from Child Life that they could use more Spin Art Machines. These are very popular in the Art Rooms. Rowan knows first hand, as he has waited patiently for his turn on the one Spin Art machine they had before. So, we purchased them 2 more along with 2 refill kits with more paint and paper squares.
Rowan's friend Marty Tayloe brought along a whole goodie bag full of fun activities for the hospital treasure boxes too.
For the patients who will have to celebrate the 4th of July from their hospital beds, we purchased patriotic window clings, red/white and blue glow sticks and boom sticks, pinwheels, beach balls and glasses.
Parents on the hematology/oncology/transplant floor, who stay here weeks or even months at a time, need to do their child's laundry frequently, so we purchased another case of fabric softener sheets and laundry detergent, enough for 100+ loads!
The next item isn't a need, but it sure is a nice little touch that we like to provide for those parents occasionally...flavored coffee creamers for their coffee:)
Finally, we brought a few more fluffy pillows and nice pillow cases and "newly diagnosed patient, parent kits" filled with all the overnight toiletry items you might need, as well as reusable water bottles and laundry bags. Just this week, while we were hospitalized with Rowan, a staff member from up in that unit brought us a thank you card, signed by the nurses and staff, telling us how helpful these kits have been. As they mentioned, some of these patients and their patients get admitted suddenly and emergently, and are not prepared for long stays away from home. They said that one patient was just displaced from the floods last week, so this kit was extremely invaluable to them. That kind of feed back just warms my heart!
This past Tuesday, on our way to Rowan's infusion clinic appointment, we loaded the back of our minivan with all of the goodies.
Then, while Rowan was getting his IVIG infusions at clinic, I took the gifts over to the hospital.
Child Life Staff and one of the Blue Bird Volunteers met us with carts to distribute the goods, and they were so grateful to be receiving another donation from us.
Upstairs in Hem/Onc/Transplant, they immediately started stocking the laundry and coffee supplies, and said it was always so appreciated by the parents last time.
We know we can't really do anything to help the patients get out of the hospital, but it is our sincere hope that we can help them, and their parents, make the best of their time in the hospital this Summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment