Due to Covid-19, Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital hadn’t been able to host some of its normal fundraisers and in-person donations. Originally Seth Samuelson’s idea was to receive donations of activity kit items and put them together with friends and family to be able to deliver them to the hospital in person. Due to current coronavirus restrictions, he was unable to put those items in kits and deliver them to the hospital himself. But the hospital and Seth were able to come up with a solution of creating a MyRegistry page where he could post links of where to buy the items and update how many of each activity kit item was bought toward the goal in real-time, with the items being shipped directly to the hospital’s Child Life Creative Arts Therapy Department. With the help of his friends and family, over 137 items such as journals, coloring books, paint by number kits, crayons, colored pencils, and Play-Doh were purchased and shipped to the hospital. These items all went directly to patients and their family members at the hospital.
Seth also came up with the idea to create a fundraising page for cash donations directly to the hospital. For each $1,000 raised toward his goal, he biked 10 miles on the Westchester County Trail. He was able to complete the 32-mile ride on December 13th and in total raised $2,741 for the hospital.
The Hospital has been very appreciative of all of the activity kit items received so far, and many items have already been put into use! (Here is a picture of some of the items that have been recently delivered. Some items have already been distributed to their young patients in Christmas gift bags!). The Hospital is especially appreciative of the work that was able to be done almost totally virtually and is impressed with all of the obstacles that were able to be overcome. “… The donations have brought smiles to many faces this holiday season!”
