The Walt Disney Firm And Starlight Kids’s Basis Unveil New Experiences That Convey Consolation And Pleasure To Sufferers At Kids’s Nationwide Hospital
The Walt Disney Firm’s dedication to bringing uplifting leisure to audiences throughout the globe, together with those that want it most, was exemplified in an Encanto-themed occasion at Kids’s Nationwide Hospital (CNH) in Washington, D.C., on October 11. The occasion, held in collaboration with the Starlight Kids’s Basis, a nonprofit devoted to delivering happiness to noticeably in poor health youngsters and their households, launched a brand new suite of Disney experiences at one of many nation’s top-five ranked pediatric hospitals whereas additionally honoring Hispanic Heritage Month.
It was the latest instance of the Firm’s five-year, $100 million dedication to assist reinvent the affected person and household expertise in youngsters’s hospitals throughout the globe by means of interactive installations, murals, and play areas. The purpose is to attract youngsters into the colourful worlds of Disney storytelling and supply pleasure and luxury throughout an in any other case anxious time for teenagers and their caretakers. Disney additionally supplies complimentary entry to Disney+ and screenings of newly launched films on a specifically designed cellular movie show display screen as a part of the corporate’s youngsters’s hospital initiative. Moreover, Disney-themed Starlight Hospital Put on, care packages, and merchandise delivered by Starlight Kids’s Basis additional permit sufferers to brighten and personalize their hospital stays. The Walt Disney Firm helps greater than 700 hospitals worldwide by means of its youngsters’s hospital initiative.
Through the occasion at CNH, Disney and Starlight Kids’s Basis unveiled new experiences to reimagine the affected person journey. To have fun, sufferers and households loved an Encanto-themed occasion that included a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a particular video message from voice expertise from the Academy Award®-winning film, an Encanto sing-along with a CNH music therapist, Encanto-themed merchandise curated by Starlight, the prospect to attract characters from the movie with a Walt Disney Animation Studios artist, and a screening of Encanto on the Disney cellular movie show display screen. Households additionally acquired Encanto-themed merchandise, together with toys, video games, books, and costumes, curated by Disney and Starlight.
“By way of these interactive murals and home windows… put in all through our hospital… our sufferers are in a position to join with slightly piece of house, which is de facto particular,” mentioned Claudia Pereira, an authorized baby life specialist at Kids’s Nationwide, in the course of the occasion earlier this week within the hospital’s Bunny Mellon Therapeutic Backyard.
“Occasions like this are tremendous particular as a result of sufferers usually aren’t in a position to come out of their rooms to work together with each other, have particular giveaways, watch a film of their free time on the hospital,” Pereira added. “[They] carry individuals collectively and let life really feel slightly bit extra regular slightly than simply being surrounded by hospital partitions and being in a hospital room.”
Adam Garone, CEO of Starlight Kids’s Basis, concurred. “Reworking the hospital expertise is core to our mission at Starlight of delivering happiness to noticeably in poor health children and their households to assist cut back the stress of hospitalization and medical procedures. Moments like these carry slightly pleasure to younger sufferers after they want it most,” he mentioned. “We’re extremely grateful for the longstanding relationship with Disney and Kids’s Nationwide Hospital and for his or her help in serving to us carry our mission to life.”
Garone famous that the kid life groups at companion hospitals present Starlight’s state-of-the-art applications—together with Starlight Hospital Put on and Starlight Deliveries of toys and video games—freed from cost to greater than 800 hospitals and healthcare services nationwide. These applications act as distraction instruments to assist younger sufferers get by means of the stress of significant diseases and hospitalization.
For Danielle Reeves, a guardian whose baby has been handled on the hospital for a number of years, the occasion and the choices supplied by Disney and the Starlight Kids’s Basis have eased a number of the stress and difficulties for his or her household.
“We had been actually excited to come back as a result of we love Disney. We come to Kids’s as soon as a month and it’s been actually useful,” mentioned Reeves. “Particularly when siblings are right here, too, to have the additional leisure. Disney is fairly strong for our household as a result of there’s one thing everybody loves about Disney right here… It makes the lengthy drive, and the lengthy hours right here really feel extra optimistic.”
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Starlight will supply the Encanto-themed merchandise that the sufferers loved on the CNH occasion to its nationwide community of healthcare companions by means of the Disney Deliveries program. A plan for a brand new assortment of Encanto-themed hospital put on was additionally introduced on the occasion, and sufferers nationwide will be capable of costume of their favourite Mirabel, Isabela, or Antonio hospital put on in 2023.
For extra details about Disney’s Kids’s Hospital Initiative, please go to affect.disney.com. To be taught extra about The Walt Disney Firm and Starlight Kids’s Basis relationship, go to starlight.org/disney.
