Pediatric patients at MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach received car-loads of gifts and toys from employees at Timmons of Long Beach for their 22nd Annual Toy Jam. Child Life Specialists for the Cherese Mari Laulhere Child Life Program and Miller Children’s & Women’s executives attended to help accept these toys—which help sustain the toy supply for kids leading into the holiday season.
Timmons of Long Beach promotes the Toy Jam to customers year-round, offering customers at their service department a 10% discount for gifting a new toy to a patient. Donations are from customers and employees alike and play a big role in the activities planned by the Child Life Program at Miller Children’s & Women’s, which include providing developmentally appropriate toys and activities as well as gifts for pediatric patients who observe their birthday in the hospital to help them cope with hospitalization and illness.
For the last several years, Samantha Timmons, wife of owner Greg Timmons, has personally helped with the donation process.
“This is really one of the best things that we can do for the community,” says Timmons. “My kids and grandkids were born here at MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach, and our family has had a number of surgeries at MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center, so this opportunity to donate and give back to our community is one of our top priorities every year.”
The Child Life Program accepts donated toys that are appropriate for infant through adolescent patients. Child Life Specialists use medical play and distraction techniques to help children adjust to their hospital stay and promote the continuity of normal, daily childhood activities.
“These donations always come in early October, which helps us get through a slow period of donations before the holiday season approaches in November and December,” says Rita Goshert, director, Cherese Mari Laulhere Child Life Program, MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach. “It makes such a difference to the patients and their families to have community members make donations to help brighten their days and even make them forget about their hospitalization for a little while.”