A Halloween smash | Health beat

the Children’s and family life The team kept the Halloween celebration alive this year with a variety of fantastic activities.

The fall festivities included reverse trick or treating, cookie decorating, and bingo. Music therapists played guitar and sang in the Balk Café. And special goodie bags were delivered to the ambulance, the emergency room, the neonatal intensive care unit and the clinic on the 10th floor.

To kick off the celebration, Zach Behling of Zach’s Sprinkles and Sweets dropped off 100 boxed cookie decoration sets. Each set contained six pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies, a large, bright orange tube of frosting, and two sets of fan-favorite sprinkles.

Thanks to philanthropy and community support, the Spectrum Health Foundation bought the kits for the occasion.

“We can give it to the patient to decorate or take home with us,” says Molly Gering, Child Life specialist.

“Who doesn’t love food, right? It’s a great opportunity for kids because they love to get messy. “

Did someone say cookies?

Child Life Specialist Jeannine Brown and her colleagues rolled the biscuit cart through the hospital floors.

She was greeted by an energetic baby shark who yearned for its treats.

Charlie Nguyen, 20 months old, dipped his hand into the orange, yellow and white sprinkles to see how they tasted. He offered his seal of approval.

Child life specialist Allie Napierala helped decorate the pumpkin cookies, but Charlie’s interest focused on the sprinkles. And he was mesmerized by the cameras and held his face up to the lens for a close-up.

Charlie’s blue baby shark costume was the latest in a series of Halloween outfits he wore during the week.

“Mom picked five to six costumes,” said Nhat Nguyen, Charlie’s father. “He didn’t like the tiger because he couldn’t wear his shoes. Yesterday he was Pooh Bear. “

Charlie has been in the hospital for about five weeks and is being treated for a cold that has turned into a more serious infection.

“He acted normally,” said Nhat. “It went from easy to worse in 18 hours.”

Charlie has a 4 year old sister, Chloe. His father received a gift bag and a box of biscuits to take home.

Reverse trick or treat

The members of the Child Life team placed trick or treating on the doors outside of the patient rooms and filled them with crafts, toys and goodies.

In one room, a young boy waved eagerly and smiled at visitors.

Cruz Blekking, 7, from Muskegon, had been hospitalized for flu-like symptoms. He was supposed to be going home later that day, but not before he got his treats.

His father, Jesse Blekking, said Cruz had a costume ready for Halloween at home.

“It’ll be a pizza. Because who doesn’t love pizza? ”Said Jesse.

Cruz focused on decorating cookies. Acting like a real chef, he threw the sprinkles on the biscuits with flair and shouted “BAM!”

Cruz plans to trick or treat his brothers Isaac, 9, and Caleb, 2, who dress up as ranch dressing and chase from Paw Patrol.

Fairy bat girl

In another room, 5-year-old Brielle Price was decorating a pumpkin biscuit.

Then she brushed the floor to reveal her sparkling butterfly wings that matched her purple Batman t-shirt. Members of the medical team called them “Fairy Bat Girls”.

Brielle came to the hospital on Wednesday, said her mother Maggie Price.

“We noticed that both arms were swollen and we brought them here,” she said. “She was a former sickle cell patient.”

Maggie said her daughter was doing better and expected to be home in time to celebrate Halloween with her siblings.

Brielle already knew what she was up to for Halloween: “Butterfly girl demon hunter,” she said.

The cutest stink bug

In the dialysis clinic in Michigan St. NE 35, 5-year-old Anderson Moreno enchanted his caregivers with a creative costume – a six-legged stink bug!

“He didn’t want to take off his legs yesterday. He’s going to wear that all the time now, ”said Alicia Moreno, Anderson’s mother.

Anderson had a heart transplant almost five years ago and is now waiting for a kidney transplant. His mother drives him from Big Rapids to his hemodialysis treatments three days a week.

This weekend, Anderson and his parents plan to go camping.

“They’re doing trunk-or-treating or … camper treatment at Campground State Park,” Alicia said.

“Camping is a new experience and he enjoys it a lot. We’re here three days a week. It’s nice to be able to escape for the weekend. “

Bingo!

The fun continued in the afternoon with a fall-themed bingo game on the hospital’s Blue Glass Studios TV.

Child Life specialists Jeremy Bergman and Alyssa Cozier run bingo every weekday at 2:00 p.m. Patients can tune in from their rooms and call the studio when they win to pick a prize of their choice.