This Wednesday morning, The Joy in Childhood Foundation hosted a Day of Joy for the pediatric patients at Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital.
The charitable foundation brought in starlight gowns with depictions of rainbows, outer space, and the underwater world. The gowns are apart of the Joy in Childhood Foundation’s commitment to Starlight Children’s Foundation Gown program which provides kids in hospitals with brightly colored, high-quality hospital gowns to wear during treatment.
In addition to the gowns, local Dunkin’ franchisee’s brought in hot chocolate and donut decorating as an activity for the patients. With a Valentine’s Day theme, the tables were adorned with pink tablecloths matching the pink frosting that was provided to ice heart shaped doughnuts.
And no patient goes without celebration.
“No one is left out unless for some reason they have a medical issue that prevents them from coming. We will have the nurses actually bring the party to them later on in the day,” says Integrated Marketing Manager at Dunkin’, Eric Stensland.
One patient was eager to get to the party. Mason was the first to show up and quickly began decorating.
“Sprinklesss!” said Mason with cheer.
Mason participated in the party wearing his new outer space gown, 1 of 25,000 gowns that the Joy in Childhood foundation has donated nationwide since 2017.
The Joy in Childhood’s goal is to provide simple joys of childhood to kids battling hunger or illness. The foundation works with a wide range of stakeholders and partners with organization’s, such as children’s hospitals, that are directly committed to serving kids to fund joyful environments and joyful experiences for kids when they need it most.
Since the non-profit launched in 2006 it has granted more than $18 million to hundreds of national and local charities across the country.
To learn more about Joy in Childhood and Starlight Children visit https://www.joyinchildhoodfoundation.org and https://www.starlight.org.
