Healing Through Play
Healing Through Play is a passion project I took on in order to raise money to donate toys and iPads to Evanston Hospital’s Pediatric Unit. I raised $5,000 and donated hundreds of toys and seven iPads.
I spend a lot of my free time working with young children at a local daycare, summer camps, and babysitting. I have incredible opportunities to form deep, meaningful, and lasting relationships with many of these children and their families. I’ve seen how difficult it is for families when kids are sick, and thrown off of their routines. I remember being in the hospital for a surgery when I was seven-years old. I felt scared and disoriented. Before the surgery, I remember someone handing me a sparkly-purple magic wand, and blowing bubbles with me. That magic wand calmed my nerves and made me feel like everything would be okay. To this day, I still have that magic wand, and it is a staple toy I bring with me when babysitting to do just that.
In order to turn my vision for this project into action I collaborated with Beat Street Toys, a local toy store, child life specialists at Endeavor Hospitals, and donors from all over who made my vision possible. Beat Street Toys generously agreed to sell toys at cost to support this effort, allowing us to purchase almost twice the amount of toys we would’ve been able to buy at shelf price. One of my favorite parts of this project was going into Beat Street Toys and hand selecting each and every toy that I would be purchasing to donate. Something that was very important to me when selecting which toys I wanted to donate was medical play representation. I work with many medically complex children and young adults, and I’ve learned what a big impact representation in toys can have. Something that may seem as simple as the presence of glasses, hearing aids, or feeding tube ports on a Barbie has the power to make all the difference for the hospitalized child seeing a part of themselves in the toy they are playing with.
My initial goal was to raise $2,000 but after just a couple of days of setting up my fundraiser page it was clear I was going to meet and then surpass that amount. I revised my goal to $3,000 and shortly after changed it again to $4,000, and finally ended on a goal of raising $4,500. By the end of fundraising the donations had surpassed every fundraising goal I had set for my project. I ended up raising a total of $5,000.
After “shopping” Beat Street Toys’ incredible selection I made my first trip to Evanston Hospital with two cars full of toys — 246 to be exact! I met with their Coordinator of Child Life Services, Katelyn Beyer, who was beyond grateful for everything we brought. She explained that they were in the middle of a "donation drought," as most toy donations come around the holiday season. Katelyn also explained that they were in need of iPad donations, a therapeutic tool the Child Life Team frequently used to teach and prep their patients for upcoming medical procedures and events. I was able to purchase a total of seven refurbished iPads in excellent condition. Katelyn and I stayed in touch after this initial delivery and ended up working together again as a part of my work through Bracelets for Bravery Club!
