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The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a nonprofit that helps kids with serious medical issues experience the joys of camp, sent 30 volunteers to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia last summer. They were armed with activity plans, supplies and an endless amount of energy and compassion.
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CHOP’s Pet Therapy Program is expanding from 30 dogs up to 80 dogs and owners, thanks to a generous donation by Gerald B. Shreiber.
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CHOP staff and patients celebrated Earth Day 2014 by planting and playing in the Sea Garden on the rooftop of Children’s Seashore House.
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Being in the hospital can be no fun — until the Child Life, Education and Creative Arts Therapy Department shows up bearing toys, art supplies, musical instruments, video games and much more.
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It's Kim Sedgwick's job to help kids cope. As a child life specialist, she helps by explaining at an age-appropriate level what is going to happen during surgery.
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For children in pain or who need to sit still for hours for a procedure, art therapy offers them an outlet to express their creativity and a distraction from their medical condition.
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Sedation is common before procedures and scans such as an MRI, and as a child life specialist in Radiology’s Sedation Unit, Melanie Hoynoski is there to prepare kids on what to expect.
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Music therapist Mike Mahoney, MA, MT-BC, offers up instruments from his cart: maracas, a drum, a keyboard. The children at the Alex Scott Day Hospital are eager to sing and play music.
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Boredom is Edwina Smith’s enemy, and as child activity coordinator on the 9 South inpatient unit, she is good at chasing it away with her infectious enthusiasm and a playroom full of toys.
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Twins Ayesha and Sufwan are patients in the Jeffrey Jay Weinberg Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. With the help of a child life specialist, they participate in fun, structured activities that help prepare them for treatment and distract them from the stresses of a long hospitalization.