Making a hospital stay less stressful for children is what the St. Charles child life specialists do best. They have incredible skills to help walk kids through the worrying or confusing parts of their stay and they use a collection of toys, games, puzzles, books and movies to help support our young patients. Layla was just 7 when she was in St. Charles Bend, and she loved getting visits from Jeri Young, a child life specialist who played with her and helped make her feel more comfortable.
Now 11, Layla has never forgotten Jeri and has been working for years to find a way to show her gratitude.
“It always made me happy to see Jeri, so I wanted to say thank you,” said Layla. “And I wanted to help other kids who were in the hospital.”
Layla worked for more than a year to raise money by walking dogs, cat-sitting, hosting bake sales and more. She took that hard earned money and used it to buy supplies that were on the child life specialists’ wish list (via St. Charles Foundation). This included new toys, books, movies, games and other supplies for pediatric patients. Layla ended up filling more than five large shopping bags with much-wanted supplies and then she and her parents delivered them to a grateful pediatric team earlier this month.
“I’ve been trying to find the words about how much this means to me for a former patient to be moved to do such an amazing act of kindness: working so hard with bake sales and lemonade stands to raise money to purchase toys and activities for other children. Layla proved through her actions just how important play is to children and especially how important play is to hospitalized children,” said Jeri. “For child life specialists, toys are the tools that help children cope with the hospital experience. For Layla to recognize that being able to play and do art made a difficult experience a little more manageable and that she wanted to do something to support us is beyond incredible. I will think of Layla and her wonderful selfless act each time I share one of the items she personally selected for us to provide a little opportunity of play for another hospitalized child.”
Layla says shopping for the items was fun and she took time to think about different things the patients might like, from tabletop foosball to movies to watch together.
Brooke Jensen, director of Women’s and Children’s Services, said, “I was just so impressed with this extraordinary young person. She had the idea to help other children needing to stay in the hospital and acted on that idea in a very meaningful way.”
To support the Child Life Specialists program, visit stcharlesfoundation.org.
