On Wednesday, October 30, 2019, we visited Lurie Children’s Hospital’s Oncology and Hematology floor and saw 22 boys and 24 girls.

The space was different than what we were expecting. The child life specialist had us set up in the patient waiting room adjacent to the playroom. It allowed for more kids and their parents to be exposed to the activities versus being in a separate play room. The children we interacted with ranged in age from 2 years old-15 year old. 

We had two tables set up in the play room, where one table was a makeup station with tiaras and the other was full of crafts and superhero capes. We had foam pumpkins for the kids to decorate with markers, Halloween stickers and super hero stickers for them to use.  The kids really enjoyed the festive craft and using their creativity to customize a pumpkin during a Halloween season.

Both boys and girls enjoyed wearing the super hero capes and a lot of the kids and parents said the kids could wear the cape and mask for their Halloween costume because they had not come up with one yet. One little girl named Caroline was very shy when she first came to decorate a pumpkin and by the end of the event after having her makeup done, decorating a second pumpkin, and asking for capes and masks for her two siblings at home, she was laughing, smiling and chattering away. Her face lit up when one of our volunteers showed how she looked in the mirror when her tiara was put on. 

Overall, our first event at Lurie was quite a success. We know the child life director appreciated our preparation, and we hope to be invited back in the near future so we can bring smiles to many kids faces again.