The Alexandra Chiles Challenge

 

Through the Challenge, over 350 volunteers from many different organizations have assembled 3000 craft kits. Child Life Specialists, Doctors, and Nurses report that these high quality craft kits are satisfying an important need of hospitalized children and teens. The crafting activities the kits provide are fun to do and give the children and teens a much needed outlet and distraction from medical routines and procedures. It is the goal of the Challenge to have a craft kit in the hands of every child and teen confined to a hospital bed.

Please read some of the feedback below that we have received from the organizations we support:

 

Hospitals and Organizations
Served by ACF:

 

 




 


 
From the Children’s Hospital in Oakland

July 2002

“On behalf of the Child Life Department and the patients at Children’s Hospital Oakland, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to you for including us in your vision of providing craft kits for hospitalized children and adolescents. As you know, this kind of activity is so appealing for children/adolescents who are faced with repeated or extended hospitalizations providing them with much-needed outlet and distraction from medical routines and procedures. The kits you provided are being used extensively by our patients, even as we speak.

The Child Life Department….exists to help children and adolescents cope with hospitalization, diagnosis and treatment. Our goal is to help our patients maintain normal emotional growth and development in the context of being medically treated for illness or injury. Your efforts have greatly contributed to what we have to offer, particularly to the  adolescent patients.”


November 2002

“Thank you, thank you once again for coming through with the most beautiful beading kits I could ever imagine!!… I could never supply the quality, variety and quantity of beads that you do with my small budget. You are providing a tremendous service for patients here – helping me to engage them in purposeful, interesting activities, which (as you know) greatly augments their ability to cope with the experience of their hospitalization.”

From the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital

April 2002

“I can’t begin to tell you how much it means to all of us to know that there are people such as yourselves who have not forgotten these very special and brave children. I was so happy when we received the initial donation months ago. I didn’t think it could get any better, but when I saw your kits last week, well your new additions of hair accessories are absolutely wonderful. Your donation and the way you put it together is perfect to take to the bedside for patients that are too sick to make it to the recreation room. The patients’ faces just light up when they see an attractive project to do. I hope you realize how much we appreciate your time and generosity.
A special thanks to the girls at Castilleja, who in honor of Alexandra H. Chiles, have done a very extraordinary community service for the patients at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford!”

From The Painted Turtle
(A Hole in the Wall Gang Camp)

July 2004
“Thank you very much for your generous contribution of 200 assorted kits and equipment to The Painted Turtle. These kits have offered our campers a chance to discover, create, laugh and play. It has been wonderful to watch these children create friendship bracelets and beaded necklaces – some giving them to their counselors as gifts, others saving them as mementos of their time at Camp.  You can find the kits and activity in the cabins during “chill time,” in the Well Shell during dialysis treatments, and in the arts and crafts center in the late afternoon….

On behalf of the campers, our board, and staff, thank you for your generosity and for joining The Painted Turtle in making a difference in the lives of so many children and families. We are fortunate to share a commitment to seriously ill children with your organization. The spirit of Alexandra and your family is inspiring to us all….”