There’s no better feeling than making a child smile. That’s especially true when the child is dealing with all of the challenges of hospitalization. CFFC recently had the opportunity to bring hundreds of smiles to the pediatric patients at Golisano Children’s Hospital.
In March, CFFC was privileged to be designated as the charity benefited by District XI of the New York State Council on Leadership and Student Activities at their annual conference. Through that program, we received an enormous amount of craft supplies, games, toys, toiletries and other good stuff donated by the students attending the conference. (For the full story, see the article Students Lend a Hand to CFFC.)
The generosity of the students exceeded the needs related to hospitalizations of children living with CF, so CFFC decided to transfer all of the donated items to the child life specialists at Golisano Children’s Hospital.
Although the students had been creative in packaging their gifts, it is easier for the child life specialists to manage donations that have been sorted into groups of similar items.
As a result of our sorting process, we were able to pack (most of) the items into one vehicle rather than the two required to collect the donations at the conference. The final tally was 36 boxes plus one very large bag full of stuffed animals.
May 21st was picked as the transfer day. With the help of some of our directors’ children, the cars were loaded and we headed off to Golisano Children’s Hospital. The child life ambassador who accepted our gift was obviously overwhelmed by the treasure we delivered. He remarked, “We usually don’t get a donation of this size except at Christmas.” Our adventure was capped off as Alexa, Kayla and Hannah performed their best Vanna White impressions.
CFFC again thanks the students of District XI of the New York State Council on Leadership and Student Activities. We were pleased to translate their kindness into a little sunshine for children confined to the hospital.