The Charlotte Chapter of For a Day was invited to the St. Jude Affiliate Clinic at Novant Health Hemby Childrens Hospital to join in their “Holiday” Celebration.”  The Child Life Specialists at Hemby believe that Christmas is so overwhelming for the children, they delay that party and have created a tradition called the “Celebration of Love” around Valentines day.  To say it was “sweet” is an understatement!

We offered a unique twist to our For a Day theme.  “Chef for a Day” -A suggestion made by one of the Child life Specialists.  I believe what attracted so many children to our activity was the bright colors in our chef aprons, prominent chef hats, big cups of icing, heart shaped cookies and colorful cookie decorations.  

Families, caretakers, siblings, doctors, nurses and of course patients are all included.  The event is held in the church hall across from the hospital giving the staff and families a break from the hospital protocols and restrictions.  70 children were in attendance. We had 120 aprons and 96 chef hats and came home with only 15 aprons. They estimated 120 people at the party. The division of boys vs girls was a challenge as they returned a few time. The greater percentage of chefs were boys.

We felt so honored to be included in this celebration.  Contributing to the event with us was a magician, junior pageant queens (making goo) nurses painting faces,  a photo booth company. They organized a raffle and nearly every child received a toy.  

My daughters, Charlotte and Clare Ruble and my sister, Sheila Smiggen were my volunteers.  They were a huge help with set up. We all assisted and engaged the children as they moved down the table choosing their chef hat, apron size and color, markers to decorate their aprons (or hat), cookies and all they wanted on top to make it just right- sprinkles, sugar, tube icing, heart gummies.  Lots of sugar - lots of creativity!

We had quite a crowd but the children were so invested in their designs we had no problem taking care of each one and sharing time with them.  One 7 year old boy had drawn a giant sword on the front of his apron. I asked him what he drew and he said with enthusiasm- “ that’s my transfusion needle!”   One 10 year old girl (who wore her chef hat the entire 2 hours) spent an hour decorating her cookie and another hour drawing a beautiful, detailed flower on her apron.  One of the most tender moments came as a mom was sharing the story that her 5 year old had thrown her mom a private Valentines Party the night before. Just as she was finishing the description of the sweet meal, her daughter walked up with a heart cookie inscribed with “mom.” Through tears mom said she is always astounded by the selfless heart of her beautiful daughter especially through illness.

It was great to see how many chefs for a day we could engage in two hours.  Looking over the room you saw a sea of chef hats and very happy chefs. We had return customers coming back 2 or three times to decorate another cookie.  We supplied “to go” bags for those designing for family and friends at home.

As we left the staff and nurses were so complimentary and extended an invitation to return soon with For a Day queen and super hero.  How “Sweet!”