Hello everyone! I wanted to give you all an update on our very special Hospital Box Roundup project.

First off, I just want to thank ALL of you who participated. You really made some very sweet letterboxes for these kiddos! I was impressed by the creativity and thoughtful touches that you put into all (40!) of your boxes. I have been so blessed with your correspondence through out the planning of this “event”. Many of you sent touching and heartfelt messages sharing your personal history with me. I believe many of you have been blessed just by being a part of this and I want to thank you for blessing me as well. I was inspired to make a difference in the lives of people that are in need of love and support at this point in their lives and you all really went above and beyond to make that original inspiration a reality. Thank you SO MUCH!

After much frustration with scheduling hang ups I was able to hide some of these wonderful boxes at the hospital yesterday. I was joined by two awesome staff members who are very excited to share this ongoing “event” with the children. (They are also looking forward to letterboxing with the children when they take them on outings in the city!!!) We decided to hold onto some of the boxes so that there would be replacements should any go missing which, after all, is an unfortunate reality to this hobby. Also there is talk about expanding this in the future so we have a few boxes for that purpose as well. Several of the boxes have been hidden with special staff that interact regularly with the patients with silly things the children have to do or say to receive the box. All of the staff I met were very enthusiastic about our endeavor and I believe will have fun with this activity as well. There will be a craft class for the children with instruction on how to make personal stamps out of craft foam shapes and introduce them to the hobby. Here they will be given a clue packet that I have written for them. We were able to correlate the images of the letterboxes to their specific hiding spots to make it even more meaningful and I tried to incorporate this into the playful clues.

All in all I am so proud to have been a part of this! It has really been a rewarding experience for me. I believe it will be a special opportunity for the families to share together… not only while they are in this hospital but also when they return home. I have hopes of meeting some of these new recruits at future letterboxing event or out on the trails =)... as this is a VERY well known hospital where patients from all over the world come to heal… you can hope to meet someone who was touched by your love and generous creativity wherever you live as well!

If there is any further news or updates I will post them to keep you informed!

--Queen Beeloved--<--<--{@

It's things like this that really brighten a dreary day! Thank you for updating us, Queen Beeloved! I really enjoyed working on this project and can't wait to hear how it goes! I'm sure the kids will love it! Lighting the Way and I are hoping to work with the Children's Hospital in Boston to do something similar. I have a friend who is a letterboxer who's little boy's first 3 months were spent at Boston's Children's Hospital. We just need to coordinate all that! (Any tips/ideas would be greatly appreciated!)

Thank you for leading this!
D5 Mama

So some of the boxes aren't being made available for anyone to find unless the hospital loses one of the boxes?

-CC Lightning Bug

They will be made available... just in phases.

~QB

You know, if you end up with "too many," I for one would be more than happy to have mine be sent to a different Children's Hospital if someone else is working on a similar project. It doesn't matter which children are helped where to me.

When my son was in the wonderful Children's Hospital here in Houston (the surgeons saved his life) for over a week, most of my time was spent in constant vigilance by his bedside, agonizing over how much morphine to give him. Towards the end, it would have been fun to wheel him out and about and find a box or two...but we never could have found 40! By the time he was THAT well, they were quickly kicking us out (no complaints here). Of course, it probably would make sense to have one hidden in every ward...because not every area of the hospital is accessible to every patient.

dewberry

You know, a rehab hospital would be a great place for those extra boxes rather than keeping them on the shelf. I was in one for 6 weeks a while back and the staff was always looking for activities requiring fine and gross motor skills to make our OT and PT fun and meaningful.

-CC Lightning Bug

That is actually part of the reason not every box has been put to use -yet. There IS a section of this hospital that is rehab as well and there will be some that is used for that area. This is a large endeavor that will be incorporated in stages. When one set of children (many are like residents as well) move through the first round of boxes there will be another round for them to find. Soon there will be crafting classes scheduled and they still have to "teach" the children about what they will be doing so everyone thought it best to divide it up. I also like the idea of having back up boxes. I don't want a box to go missing and "oh well... it was the thought that counts" kinda thing. Extra boxes means longevity for the activity which means more children get to find some fun relief. I originally opened this up for 20 boxes but there was such a wonderful response that it quite quickly grew to 40 boxes. I wanted to give everyone a chance to be a part of this. I did however have to stop at 40... and several people were still wanting on. I understand that everyone has their own ideas/expectations on how this would work best... however I started out with the intention to accomodate the hospital and to work closely with them as they know what will be the best route for that environment. I am thrilled they would be willing to make the adjustments and take time to hold all the meetings and send out all the alerts to staff getting everyone on the same page as this took. In the end, all the boxes that were donated to the cause are now the hospital's property to do with as they wish. I do not believe the boxes "on the shelf" will remain there long. I also have no intention on altering my coarse with this as I believe the original intent has or soon will be fulfilled.

Queen Beeloved

Queen Beeloved, I completly trust your judgement. I sent you my box to help out your cause, if it needs to be a back up box or what ever it is fine with me. I am just happy to have been a small part of this.

Quote

I also have no intention on altering my coarse with this as I believe the original intent has or soon will be fulfilled.

I stand behind you, do what is needed.

Mystic Dreamer

Sorry I missed out on this. If you need additional boxes for any reason, I'd LOVE to help out.

I know all too well what it's like to be cooped up in a hospital with a child for a length of time. I know that the families will truly appreciate the time and effort put into all of this. If they can relax and enjoy themselves for just one minute and maybe forget why they are where they are....it's all worth it.

Thanks to YOU from parents everywhere,
Mercs