Saint Mary’s kids have a Boo-tiful time

The kids at Saint Mary’s Hospital for Children in Bayside don’t get to go out Trick-or-Treating - so this year, Halloween came to their door.
Thanks to Spirit Halloween, a chain of 600 of “the most comprehensive one-stop destinations for everything shoppers can imagine for Halloween,” Saint Mary’s kids got to dress up like their favorite characters.
They got to choose among an array of characters, their favorite costumes, all generously donated by the company, founded in 1983.
Batman and Superman walked together, Cinderella searched for her Prince - Spiderman even hung around, though he wasn’t swinging from a web.
Volunteers joined with staffers on Tuesday, October 14, putting up special decorations and then helped with creative arts & crafts activities, painted pumpkins and more than a few happy faces.
Some of the volunteers even left the hospital with green and orange faces after some of the kids found amusement in “getting into the act.”
“Spirit Halloween is doing a great thing by bringing happiness to these kids at the hospital,” said Dr. Burton Grebin, CEO of St. Mary’s. “It’s a special joy to watch the kids enjoy a holiday they might otherwise not have the opportunity to participate in,” he said.
The group donated all decorations, arts & crafts supplies, coloring books and crayons and special socks for the infants at the facility.
“Spirit Halloween created memories that will last a lifetime for some very special kids who are battling complex medical and life-limiting conditions,” a hospital spokesperson said.
The company launched its “Spirit of Children” program in 2006. This year, they’re having these Halloween parties in 50 children’s hospitals, nationwide.
They also hope to raise $500,000 for Child Life Departments within the various hospitals and pediatric centers, “to ensure that for each child’s stay there are more activities and the children are as comfortable as possible,” according to their web site.
Company CEO Steven Silverstein, one of the volunteers explained. “This is a mission our whole organization has rallied around - from the executive management team to the local stores who actually create the events and interact with the kids,” he said.
According to the company, 100 percent of the money collected and items purchased for their events are donated to the child life departments within the hospitals participating in the Spirit of Children program.
“We’ve had wonderful response from the hospitals we’ve served,” Silverstein observed, “But it’s really the reactions of the kids that has really made this program the heart of Spirit Halloween.”
For more information about Saint Mary’s Hospital for children, visit their web site at www.stmaryskids.org. To learn more about the Spirit of Children program, visit www.spirithalloween.com.