November 23, 2006 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Children being treated for cancer at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital, in Spokane, Wash., are often scared, tired, in pain, and lonely. The medical center is the only children’s hospital between Seattle and Minneapolis, and patients can be separated from family members and friends for long periods while receiving treatment.
To help relieve some of the loneliness, seventh-grade students at All Saints Catholic School, also in Spokane, recorded several children’s stories to entertain some of the younger patients there and donated books to accompany the recordings.
“Kids helping kids is a real powerful thing,” says Danita Petek, a spokeswoman for the hospital. The cancer patients, she says, “are isolated from their own friends, so to know that kids are thinking about them is a real big deal.”
The children’s hospital foundation gave All Saints a grant of $300 to purchase a good microphone and other technology needed to record the books.
Four students who could “put something into the characters” were selected to record the stories, which included classics like Green Eggs and Ham and The Ugly Duckling,
Mr. Staebell organized the project, one of many at the elementary and middle school that emphasizes community service. Students help raise money for the American Cancer Society and the Rypien Foundation, a local organization that helps children with cancer. They also send birthday gifts and cards to patients at the children’s hospital. “It’s kind of a tragedy that kids that age, 5, 6 years old, are suffering from cancer,” says Mr. Staebell. “Anything our kids can do to help alleviate some of the pain, that’s all good.”
Here, Stephen Ferraro and Madisson Clarry, both All Saints students, record Jack and the Beanstalk for cancer patients at the children’s hospital.
