Working with Baptist Children's is such a pleasure. The Child Life Team at this hospital really understand our mission and what the kids need - play therapy - to lift their spirits. Baptist is smaller than the other hospitals we work with and we were prepared to manage a smaller population of children.
We had 4 children come to our event via the playroom. The first little patient came in exactly at 1pm when the event started. Her mom said she had been counting down the minutes until we arrived. She enjoyed every station and made her sash, had her nails and make up done and was crowned and received her boa. She had the best time, her parents were so happy to see her happy, and they even joined the fun. They were taking family photos with Belle and Taylor, Miss South Florida Fair; it was very special. Later that day, while walking to the room visits, we saw her - crown, make up and all - getting discharged. She was all dolled up for her big exit! What a way to go out?!
We had a lot more room visits than normal, and some unique situations that were happy to help with. One patient, 5 years old, was at the hospital all alone, as her family had to work and siblings go off to school. The nurses and staff were heartbroken - we were able to take all the crafts to her bedside and have a volunteer spend hours with her in her room doing all the crafts. Belle and Taylor also paid her a visit for her official crowning. It felt nice that we were able to provide a little company and fun to what would have been an otherwise very lonely and scary day for a 5 year old.
We had a lot of room visits with were a huge success. Belle and Taylor went room to room delivering crafts for the kids to do in their room to help the time pass. They all were crowned and their faces lit up. It was such a magical day, and we had a wonderful team and great execution.
We cannot wait to partner with Baptist Children's again and with the Miami Cancer Institute (Also at Baptist) in the future! It is such a privilege to be able to bring this event to the kids who need it.
In total, we saw 15 kids: 4 who visited the playroom and 11 individual room visits. 2 boys & 13 girls
