Kids with Cancer but I would like to make them personalized to each child like character hats, How can I do that? Should I visit first, call the hospital and can I deliver them myself or should I mail them. I really wanna do this, has anyone ever donated to a children's hospital before and how did you do it?Serious answers only!
Thanks for the great answers!! I don't want to wait until April because it would be too close to the summer and I would like the little ones to wear them for a white, and I wasn't thinking of a massive donation, since they are handmade so I can only make so much on my free time. I believe the SURVEY answer is awesome, Thanks for the help!! and hope that the hospital I call to doesn't have so MANY!! restrictions wow
Kaykay Smith - You should contact the hospital and propose your idea- if they like it, you can ask for each child's favorite color, or if you want to add some sort of iron on for the younger children, ask what character/animal/etc they like. You could conduct it as a survey, or you could have the nurses ask. Or, you could find out how many boys there are, and how many girls, and ages, and make various colors/etc, and they can choose their own.
ReplyDeleteIf you do it the last way, have more options than there are children in case a lot of kids like one particular color.
Great idea, you have a good heart, good luck(:
TrueSnapdragon - I work with children with cancer and get question like this frequently.
ReplyDeleteIt's really nice that you want to do this, but you absolutely must call first. You should find the number to the hospital and ask to speak to someone in pediatric oncology. You will probably end up speaking to a child life specialist or social worker to actually ask your questions.
You first need to ask if they accept handmade hats and if they need any right now. Be aware that during the month of December, most pediatric oncology centers get a LOT of donations. I literally cannot take anything right now and would ask you to wait until at least April.
You probably won't be able to do personalized hats for each child. While it's possible that they could tell you the age of a patient and what the patient likes, you would not be told the child's name. I would not accept a personalized donation because it would take far too much of my time to put together a list of what each kid likes... and I'd be worried about leaving out a child. I would request that you just make hats and I'd give them out as needed and as appropriate. I would probably tell you that right now, I have a lot of kids who love Dora, dinosaurs, and princesses, if that would help you.
Ask about how to get the hats to the clinic. I'm not able to have anyone actually come into clinic- people can drop off donations, but I have to meet them in the lobby. There are concerns with infection control and confidentiality that limit visitors.
I can tell you that your hospital will probably tell you they will accept hat donations (newly made, washed material.) We go through a LOT of hats! Pediatric oncology centers see kids from 0-about 22 (sometimes older) and people tend to only make very small hats, which means the older kids and teens don't get any, so definitely keep that in mind.