Starlight Deliveries Bring Happiness During COVID-19

Community Stories

·Aug 10th, 2020

Long stays in the hospital can be boring and even a little scary, especially when you’re not feeling well, alone in your room, or stuck in isolation. During the coronavirus pandemic, Starlight Deliveries help our hospital partners entertain and engage their pediatric patients, who are more bored than ever.

Every year, Starlight Deliveries sends hundreds of thousands of books, toys, games, arts and crafts, and other items directly to seriously ill kids.

Genesis, age 3, playing with arts and crafts delivered by Michaels (Michaels delivered nearly 30,000 of these backpacks to hospitalized kids across the nation)

Unlike in-person programs or events, these deliveries can continue even during the coronavirus pandemic.

Hospital staff and kids love Starlight Deliveries because playing can help distract kids from pain and reconnect them with their home lives. Many hospital playrooms are closed, and visitation hours are restricted. For young patients now finding themselves isolated, our hospital partners are using Deliveries to make goodie bags and incorporate the items into play.

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“Starlight Deliveries are essential in helping to support the need for activities and diversion for the patients,” said Lisa, Lead Child Life Specialist at Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi. “Everyone, from patients to families to hospital staff, is under more stress than ever before as we all navigate these difficult times.”

Each Starlight hospital can order exactly what they need, exactly when they need it, and in exactly the amount they want on our Starlight Hub. Thanks to the generosity of our corporate partners, individual donors, and foundations, we’re able to deliver these products at no cost to our network of more than 800 hospitals across the U.S.

Since 2015, Starlight Deliveries has brought more than 1.6 million moments of happiness to children’s hospitals and pediatric units in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.