Westerly buddies hatch plan to help children in hospital

Westerly Elementary fourth-graders Olivia Barber (left) and Alexa Pohlkamp collected toys for hospitalized children.

It can be scary and lonely when children are admitted to the hospital, but Bay Village's Westerly Elementary fourth-graders Alexa Pohlkamp and Olivia Barber decided to do something to help. They would collect toys and games to be given to each child when he or she needed to be hospitalized.

The girls didn't move forward without a plan, however. "They came to me one day last August and said, 'this is what we want to do', and I said OK," said Alexa's mother, Allison. The activities that ensued included creating a marketing campaign and contacting Fairview Hospital to learn how they could make their project work.

After distributing professional-looking flyers and making loudspeaker announcements to solicit donations from their fellow students, the girls carefully stored and tracked the donations. In the final tally, 412 stuffed animals, books and games were presented to Fairview Hospital's Sandy Crisell at a school assembly on Thursday, May 28.

Crisell, a child life specialist in the hospital’s Child Life Department, told students that receiving a new toy was very comforting for children who often were hospitalized unexpectedly.

The girls thanked their fellow students with a speech during the assembly, and they also presented student Gen Fortin with a candy bar in recognition of her donating the largest number of toys.

"You are doing something that will help even more than 412 children," Crisell told the assembled students. "Some of these books and games will be shared with many children in our playroom. What even more important," she added, "you are doing something for someone else while expecting nothing in return. It's important to do well in school, very important, but this is the kind of thing that makes you a good person of high character. You feel good just because you've done something for someone else. Thank you all."

Karen Derby is the Public Information Officer for the Bay Village City School District.