What the program means to Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital and Child Life Program
Since 2012, Spirit Halloween has given more than $870,000 to Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital’s Child Life Program. These funds have been used to help patients, parents, caregivers and siblings feel more at ease about surgeries, clinic appointments and hospital stays. It also enables the Child Life team to ensure kids are meeting developmental and educational milestones while undergoing treatment by providing for distraction and relaxation tools, medical play, special events, pet therapy, playrooms and more.
Previous support from Spirit of Children has been used to purchase arts and crafts, gifts, dolls for educational purposes and KindVR headsets, which use virtual reality to help children relax during medical treatments. The funds have also been used to:
- Upgrade the fish tank on our hospital’s 5J Pediatric Unit
- Bring sensory carts to inpatient areas.
- Add four charging lockers for our families to be able to securely charge their phones and tablets.
- Buy new PlayStations for our Children’s Cancer & Infusion Center.