TODAY news - June 6, 2002

Thursday, June 6, 2002 TODAY

Loma Linda University Children's Hospital news

Happy Hats for Kids brings smiles to LLUCH patientsÕ faces

Frances Vasquez (middle), from Senator Nell Soto’s office, presents certificates of appreciation to (from left) Randy Sampson, community resource manager for CIW; Sheri Schrier, founder and executive director of Happy Hats; Donna McKinney, Happy Hat director at CIW; Sue DuBoer, chair of CIW’s citizen’s advisory committee; Bob and Gloria Wilson, sponsors of Happy Hats; and Lt. Bob Sebald, public information officer for CIW, in front of the “Window of Light” painting in the Children’s Hospital lobby.

Their main colors are purple and gold. They sit a head above the rest and children lit up when they came to visit them at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital on May 2.

No, it’s not the Lakers; it’s Happy Hats for Kids! Shaped like a Robinhood cap with a lightning bolt on top and a star in front, these hats have a history of helping children.

“It’s just fun to see the reaction of the kids and parents,” says Sheri Schrier, founder and executive director of Happy Hats for Kids. She started the non-profit organization 11 years ago, after she lost her younger brother, father, and grandmother to cancer.

Enlisting the help of five seniors to make hats for children she’d seen in local hospitals, Ms. Schrier produced 100 hats to help put the light back into the little patients’ eyes.

The hats met with so much success that soon Ms. Schrier had to find ways to expand the idea.

“We went to Rotary, Kiwanis, Girl Scouts, anyone who could help sew hats,” Ms. Schrier says. But with an initial commitment of 25,000 hats, finding enough volunteers to craft them was difficult. That’s when a more reliable source was sought.

Enter the California Institution for Women (CIW) in Chino. It took a slow start of two and a half years to transform prison policy into little felt hats, but now CIW is in the fourth year of producing Happy Hats for Kids!

Ms. Schrier, a professional hat designer for the golf and tennis industry, has a new program in the works for Happy Hats for Kids! With her first visit to the Children’s Hospital, Ms. Schrier debuted the Hero Hats, with the star and lightning bolt, to the kids.

And they loved them.

“I feel kind of kooky,” says Edgar Lujan, a 9-year-old patient putting the hat on for the first time. “But happy!” he exclaimed once it was on.

The Hero Hats program’s purpose is to lessen some of the fear a young patient and family experience when entering a hospital environment. The lightning bolt on the hat represents courage and the star, hope. Ms. Schrier is working on an original “Hero Club” storybook that will accompany the Hero Hats in the future. The story will show how kids are the real heroes and can find the courage within to face anything.

Senator Nell Soto sent a representative, Frances Vasquez, in support of the Happy Hats for Kids! programs.

“The Happy Hats program is having a tremendous impact on children,” says Ms. Vasquez. And for that impact, she presented Ms. Schrier and the CIW officials with certificates of appreciation for their volunteer work.

Once Ms. Vasquez finished handing out the certificates, Ms. Schrier was ready to get back to the main reason she came to the hospital. “Ok, bring out the kids,” she grins.

Lt. Bob Sebald, public information officer for CIW, enjoys giving out the hats as much as the kids enjoy receiving them.

“It sounds funny, Happy Hats, but it is great,” he says, “the best medicine.”

And not only for the kids. Donna McKinney, the Happy Hats for Kids! director at CIW, is affectionately known as “mom” to the inmates who volunteer to spend every Tuesday sewing hats under Ms. McKinney’s supervision. Often, the program offers a sense of accomplishment and self-worth for the prisoners to know that their handiwork is bringing smiles to hurting children.

“It’s a balance between the prison ladies and the kids,” says Bob Wilson, board member of the Lund Foundation, main sponsor of Happy Hats.

“Every dollar we donate helps both the kids and the prison,” adds Gloria, Mr. Wilson’s wife.

During the visit to the Children’s Hospital on May 2, 30 kids came down to the lobby to find out what was so special about these crazy hats. When Ms. Schrier held a mirror for them to see what they looked like with the hat on, they got the picture.

The other 300 hats made by the CIW inmates and brought by the prison official Randi Sampson, community resource manager, were distributed to the children up on the units who were unable to come down to the lobby. As the cameras were all put away and the last of the hats gathered up to take to the kids, the last glittering smiles lingering on the adults faces as they left the Children’s Hospital mirrored the younger expressions lighting up the rooms inside.

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Children’s Day acquaints kids with the hospital and how to stay healthy

On the Loma Linda University campus lawns surrounding the administration building of Magan Hall, a group of 2,300 kids and their teachers, parents, and daycare-providers spent May 15 learning firsthand about hospitals and health.

The 17th Annual Children’s Day, sponsored by the Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital and McDonald’s restaurants of the Inland Empire, featured more than 20 booths covering nutrition, the dangers of smoking, fire safety, bike helmet safety, germs and the importance of hand washing, and many other preventive precautions on how to stay healthy.

“The goal of the health fair,” says Leslie Young, MS, director of Children’s Hospital programming, “is educating kids in a non-threatening and fun environment to show them that a hospital is a friendly place where people want to help them get well if they are sick or hurt.”

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Children’s Hospital Foundation director interviewed by KESQ-TV

Executive director of Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital Foundation Patti Cotton Pettis is interviewed by Pal Desert KESQ-TV reporter Dan Ball with television videographer Nada Huber during the first Marriott Charity Golf Tournament, held in Rancho Mirage on Friday, May 10. More than 100 golfers took part in the charity golf tournament, which raised approximately $20,000 for Children’s Hospital. During the live interview, Ms. Pettis noted that LLUCH is the only children’s hospital in San Bernardino, Riverside, Inyo, and Mono counties, which comprise approximately 25 percent of the land area of California, and that about 20 percent of Children’s Hospital patients come from the desert region served by KESQ-TV. Also participating in the interview was Scott Blaul (standing behind Ms. Pettis and Mr. Ball), general manager of the Marriott Residence Inn, which is located adjacent to the golf course. In addition to raising funds, the tournament raised an equal amount for three other local desert charities. Organizing the tournament was Frank Garahan, general manager, Mariott Las Palmas Resort.

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