Batman at the Salt Lake City Shriners Hospital

TAMPA, Fla. (PRWEB)
October 30, 2019

This Halloween season, Shriners Hospitals for Children® and the heart of Spirit Halloween – Spirit of Children – are making a difference in the lives of children.

Since 2007, Spirit of Children has donated more than $4.6 million to Shriners Hospitals for Children to go toward their local child life departments – after this year, that number will be more than $5 million. Each year, the Spirit of Children crew also visits Shriners Hospitals throughout the country to help host Halloween parties for their patients that include free costumes, food, crafts and games.

These seasonal efforts make hospitals less scary for kids and their families through support of the child life departments at the program’s partner hospitals, which include Shriners Hospitals for Children. Since its inception, Spirit of Children has raised more than $55 million for hospitals across the United States and Mexico. Donations stay within local communities, and 100% of every dollar donated supports the partner hospitals’ child life departments.

Shriners Hospitals for Children — Salt Lake City hosts an extra special Halloween event for its patients each year, where wheelchairs are transformed into magical costumes during their annual wheelchair costume clinic. This year, with help from Spirit of Children, hospital staff and volunteers turned the wheelchairs of a record 32 patients into customized Halloween costumes. From Santa in his sleigh to Aladdin on a magic carpet, patients were all smiles at the hospital’s fourth annual event while transforming their wheelchairs into anything their hearts desired.

The Salt Lake City Shriners Hospital staff created the costume clinic in response to feedback from parents that door-to-door trick-or-treating poses challenges for children with physical disabilities. This event helps level the playing field for children in wheelchairs living with conditions such as spina bifida and skeletal dysplasia who come to Shriners Hospitals for care. Other costume creations have included a Batmobile, Millennium Falcon and boat to take Moana across the sea. The clinic is an example of Shriners Hospitals’ wrap-around care that goes beyond the physical needs to meet the child’s social and emotional needs, as well.

We thank Sprit of Halloween and their program Spirit of Children for their support of Shriners Hospitals for Children. Hosting these memorable annual Halloween events for patients is just one of the ways Shriners Hospitals for Children is helping to provide hope and healing to children every day.

About Shriners Hospitals for Children

Shriners Hospitals for Children is changing lives every day through innovative pediatric specialty care, world-class research and outstanding medical education. Our health care system provides advanced care for children with orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate. All care and services are provided regardless of the families’ ability to pay.

Shriners Hospitals for Children is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and relies on the generosity of donors. All donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law.

For more information, please visit shrinershospitalsforchildren.org.

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