Today reminded me a bit
like a day at the camp I work at every summer. I work with kindergarteners
every summer, so their ages range between 4, 5, and 6. Today at Rainbow, I
spent a while with a 4 year old girl. When I first met her last week, she was a
bit shy, but today she loved company. I love children at this age, because they
have such a fresh and vibrant personalities. All she wanted was to watch me put
together all kinds of princess puzzles (Frozen, Cinderella, Princess Sophia,
etc.)! We kept going from one activity to the next. It was so cute when she
asked me to bring her exactly 7 pieces of colorful paper and exactly 7 markers.
She had me draw big and little hearts to make for her family. I made a little family
of hearts for her “daddy” from her. When she seemed finished with that, she
immediately started to make “hand turkeys” with my hand. She got marker all
over her hands and mine. She reminded me of my campers because there was never
a dull moment. She kept jumping up and down on her hospital bed and onto the floor.
It was quite entertaining, and it was really refreshing to play with an older
kid since I had mostly been holding babies and toddlers last week.
~Clare
Clare, your entire project sounds amazing, and it’s clear that you’re doing really important work and having a great time doing it. From what you’ve shown here, it means a lot to the kids that you’ve volunteered to be with that you are able to be their buddy for a day and play with them. I’m interested to hear about the nurses that you work with, and what their different jobs entail; I’m sure that they’re often too busy to play with the kids like you do, but is their someone on the floor who isn’t a volunteer who provides the same sort of companionship? I’m only wondering because I know that at certain times of the year, such as now when everyone is on project, there are often more volunteers at an organization that at other times. Did you have to go through any training before your project, and if so what did it entail? And finally, do you ever find your job difficult, and in what ways has the hospital set up their volunteer program to minimize this feeling in volunteers? You’re really making a difference in the day to day lives of the children that you work with. Good job Clare!
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