I work for Allstate Insurance and they have a charity called Helping Hands. It is a volunteer organization that goes around getting involved in local community projects and charitable events. I had the most wonderful opportunity on Tuesday Evening, July 22nd, 2008. I volunteered to go to the Children's Hospital in Birmingham Alabama and take part in "A Magical Night of Disney." The company sponsored the event and there were many others who volunteered to make the night a huge success.
There were going to be two people from my office that dressed up in costumes, Cinderella and Tigger (other Allstate offices did other characters). I got to be Tigger. It was wonderful to see the children respond to the costume. Some would run to me and give "Tigger" a big hug while others would scurry behind a parent's leg to hide. I walked around in the lobby while the hospital staff brought the children, who were well enough to be moved, to the lobby for the event. For about an hour I walked around hugging everybody, having pictures made, hugging everybody again, getting more pictures made with babies and children and parents and nurses, and kneeling down to hug small children and getting up to hug taller children, faking to sign Tigger's autograph and handing out pictures of Tigger. This was work, but it was a pure joy. After about an hour of being in the main lobby, two costumed characters were chosen by the hospital staff to go upstairs to visit some of the children too sick to come down. (They did not tell us before but the staff was watching us to see who interacted with the children the best and then they were chosen to go upstairs.) Tigger and Goofy were chosen to go up.
I was asked to write about one experience of the night for the Helping Hands to use. This is the story I chose.
I was escorted, by hospital staff, to the room of a 5 year old little girl. The overhead light had been turned off and the room was lit by the light from the nurses station and lights of several medical equipment monitors. It was quiet in the room, only the whispers of her parents and the steady beeping of machines and the occasional murmur of people talking in the hallway could be heard. The dark haired girl with large brown eyes was laying in a bed with safety rails, the headboard surrounded with monitors and machines. She was nearly motionless as I approached her bedside. I saw both of her small hands had IV's taped into the back of them. A clear tube was coming out of her nose and taped to the side of her face. There were wires taped to her chest and a small pink and white hospital gown barely covering her torso. She looked tired and very sad. When I got to her bedside I reached over the railing and patted her arm. She just stared at me. In costume I was unable to speak, so I could only try to entertain her by my actions. I handed her a stuffed animal, a Tigger about 5 inches tall that would spring up and make noise if you pushed down on it's head, and she slowly reached out and took it. I then took a picture of Tigger and held it close to my Tigger-heart and then handed it to her. My heart was breaking with the effort that she seemed to be exerting to take the things that I was handing her so I just laid them in the bed beside her. I then held my big Tigger paws over my Tigger eyes and then removed them quickly to pretend to be playing peek-a-boo. She smiled. I continued to play peek-a-boo with her for just a moment when I saw her hands move slowly to her eyes and then slowly she turned them to the side and in a quiet voice she said "Boo." I was crying inside that hot Tigger head as I jumped back to make her believe that she had scared Tigger. We continued playing peek-a-boo while her face beamed with one of the cutest smiles that I've ever seen. It was then that I noticed the girl's mother walking towards me. She approached me and place her hand on my back and said, "I know that there is someone inside this costume, and while I may never know who you are, I want you to know that this is the first time that my baby has smiled in over three days. Thank you for being here." I patted the mother on her back and gave her the biggest 'thumbs up' that I could with a Tigger paw on my hand. She wiped a tear from her eye and walked back to her seat to allow me to continue playing with 'her baby.' For about another minute I was able to play peek-a-boo while behind the shield of a costumed Tigger head my tears continued to flow. The hospital staff advised me that we must keep going and with mixed emotions I left a little girl who had, if even for just a brief moment, smiled and forgotten about all the reasons that held her in that hospital bed.
That's why I volunteer. Money can't buy the feeling that I felt when I realized that with such little effort I was able to make such a huge difference in the lives of those who were dealing with indescribable pain.
Jerrel swings into this picture (hence the blur.)