Remembering Zachary… 1st I am amazed to say at
last count we were at 757 children, 80 parents, and 90 staff that can be
touched by the donations given to Remembering Zachary. This doesn’t have us breaking open the 144
bracelets, the 144 tattoos, 10 bouncy balls, 15 parachute men, or other packs
of items, we counted them as individual unsure what they were going to do with
them, if they were going to go into bags, be used during procedures or
what. One of the most impactful things
that we got to hear was that June happens to be when the hospital needed the
most donations, by June all the items that were donated at Christmas are pretty
much gone and they are struggling to have the items that they needed to share
hope with the patients. Thank you for
helping us share the love with the children at a time that they needed it the
most!!!!
We were able to spread the items to almost every floor of
the hospital…. Both the PICU and TICU got items to stock their cabinets and to
have reserves, the waiting room receptionist for the PICU was stocked with beanie
babies, stuffed animals, and snacks to give to family and friends as they wait
to go into the unit, The 4th
floor (which is the floor that was Zach’s before he got so sick and is where
lots of Zach’s friends go if they don’t have to be in the unit) got lots of
craft items esp. foam stickers which Zach always got lots of while on that
floor. The 4th floor nurses
also got cupcakes and waters to say thank you for the care that they give. The Rehab floor was given some items to use
in therapy that desperately needed to be replaced. In fact one item that was donated (the egg
shakers) was given esp. to the music therapist that came and gave extra attention
to Zach on his hard days. I wanted to
make sure that she could make others smile like she did to Zach, that she could
help the parents have hope by sharing music to the children. Even after that the office of the child life
staff for the PICU/TICU and Storage Closet that was empty before this was then
fully stocked with the items that they were going to need. She was going to have to order mobiles and we
stocked them with 5 that they desperately needed, we were able to provide the
exact items that they needed at the moment, I can’t help but think that Zach
was in on that and knew exactly what his friends needed.
Zachary was a bright star in many lives, I know that I am
biased but I heard time and time again how amazing his smile was, you know they
are right, his smile would make you feel better and warm your heart. While we
had some tears on June 14 2012 to be able to pull up to the hospital literally
with a vanful of items make some of those tears sting a tad less. When I started Remembering Zachary I wanted to
touch one more than I did last year, to take one more item than we did last
year. Last year the day after Zachary
died, Adam and I showed up at the ICU and took a box of items. I wanted to do more than that box. Thank you for helping us realize that dream!
We are not stopping here however; we would like to make sure
that they always have the items that they need for the patients and their
families. We will be doing three drives
a year…
1.
Remembering Zachary: (Delivered June 14th
every year unless it is on the weekend) this drive will be collecting toys, art
supplies, infant crib toys, new blankets, pillowcases, etc. This list could go on forever, this is our
major event to stock the child life staff with all the items that they need and
desire to pass out to the families.
2.
Back to the Hospital: (delivered end of Sept of
every year) this drive is to collect items that are often on sale during the
back to school times. Items like
crayons, markers, paints, paper, notebooks, glue, dry eraser markers, folders,
pencils, colored pencils and sharpeners, etc.
This list can also go on forever, these items are ones that cannot be
taken back once they are given to a patient or go into a patient’s room. This means they are always in desperate need for
them
3.
Stuck on Stickers: (delivered end of Feb of
every year) this drive is simply what the name implies; it will be to collect
stickers. Stickers of ALL KINDS,
stickers were by far Zach’s favorite and he often found himself at the hospital
stickering (is that even a word) with flowers, fairies and princesses because
that is all the stickers they had. Now
Zachary didn’t care but many children do.
This can be as simple as going and getting one sheet of stickers from
the dollar store and putting them in an envelope so for $1.50 you can touch at
least one child’s life or it can be as grand as spending 20 bucks and sending
them in a flat rate box.
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