OBER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PROJECT: Cushy gifts for sick kids

The Ober Elementary School student council wanted to do one more community service project for the year under the Kids Helping Kids theme.

Throughout the year, the students participated in food drives for local charities as well as collecting toiletries, undergarments and backpacks for students at Craig Elementary School, but there was something missing.

The children needed to feel involved -- like they were truly putting a smile on a child's face. They needed a "last but not least project," as fourth-grader Danielle Usiak put it.

Jill Long, co-vice president of community service for the school's Parent Teacher Organization, was flipping through a sewing magazine when she got the idea -- sew pillows for the children in the oncology ward at Sunrise Hospital.

Where the parents constructed the brightly colored pillows, the students created scenes from the book "Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go to Sleep," by Joyce Dunbar. The book is a conversation between siblings about the simple, happy things that await them when they awake in the morning such as a soft blanket, food in the cupboard and chicken slippers.

"These kids wake up in the morning, and all they think about is going to school where some of these kids (in the hospital) just want to wake up in the morning," said Mary Pizzi, fifth-grade teacher and council adviser.

After the children designed the patches, they were copied onto transfer paper, ironed onto fabric and affixed to the pillows. Pillows and a copy of the book were given to each of the 12 patients as well as one copy to the hospital children's library.

"I thought it would apply well to our children. It lets them know how good it feels to help others," Long said. "I want the children upstairs to read a happy book to remind them the little things are important."

"Not everything's bad, because even the things he was afraid of here (in the book) weren't bad things," added Michelle Loney, Long's co-vice president.

While the adults delivered the gifts to the children, the student council anxiously awaited their return downstairs. Because of the risk of infection, the children weren't allowed to visit.

To prepare the children, the teachers related times when they have been sick and someone did something nice for them. Sue Collins, child life specialist at Sunrise, took the children through a slide show tour of hospital procedures such as registration and surgery as well as what happens when an anesthesiologist puts patients to sleep and how children can have fun in the hospital even though they are sick.

"Books are always great to read when you're in bed," Collins told the children.

The children were happy to be there, even if it meant waiting in the lobby and hearing about the children's reactions second hand.

"We get to give them stuff to make them feel more comfortable," said Caitlin Downing, a fifth-grader.

While creating their designs, the children thought of the things they would miss if they were ill enough to stay in the hospital. Friends and family were high on the list. Usiak said she would miss "just the daylight pretty much."

"I'd get bored staying inside all the time like a little house mouse," she added.

Instead of collecting donated items or fund raising, the children thought creating something for the children made the gesture more meaningful -- like giving a friend a home-made gift for their birthday.

"To make sure someone is thinking of them," Usiak said. "Not just saying I'm sorry, but that they're giving some effort."

"We wanted them to see where their stuff is going. They were all really into it," Loney said. "(The students) wanted them to know they're not here by themselves."