The Stony Brook chapter launched in early 2020 and began making plans for its first hospital visit, right before Covid-19 hit the area. Within pediatric cancer, patients and volunteers are already subject to immune control policies to protect the compromised immune systems.

With the uncertainty of the coronavirus, hospitals have restricted siblings under the age of 18 from visiting patients, and sometimes, even just one parent at a time. Volunteer programs like ours have been paused indefinitely. For a Day Foundation quickly organized self-guided activities and reached out to our partner facilities to arrange shipments to isolated patients.

Stony Brook Children’s asked specifically for infant soothers and small laptops or tablets for patients to video chat with siblings at home, and to do their homework. The Stony Brook chapter jumped at the chance to meet the need.

We sent 12 infant soothers and 8 Chromebooks to the facility. It is only because of the generosity of our donors that we were able to immediately respond to the patients’ needs. We look forward to continuing to serve hospitalized kids in unique ways.