Good News

‘The whole thing is to make them feel comfortable and in a safe environment so they feel safe and secure and are happy.’

By Sherry Long slong@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

PLAINS TWP. – The King’s College baseball team was a hit Thursday morning, but not for anything they did on the diamond.

Read more Good News articles

click image to enlarge

King’s College baseball players, from left, Jared Turner, Brian Mikus and Pat Matthews help 6-year-old Garett Colombo work on a puzzle during a visit to his room at the Janet Weis Children’s unit at Geisinger Wyoming Valley.

FRED ADAMS/for THE TIMES LEADER

click image to enlarge

Members of King’s College baseball team unload a truck with 757 boxes of toys in front of Geisinger Wyoming Valley as part of the Jared Box Project.

FRED ADAMS/FOR THE TIMES LEADER

Select images available for purchase in the
Times Leader Photo Store

About 15 team members joined with students from the Pocono Mountain School District’s School to Work Program to pass out boxes of toys, called Jared Boxes, to children in the Janet Weis Children’s Hospital Pediatric Unit at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center.

Every year baseball players donate their time to help others through the Extra Innings Community Service Club, King’s head baseball coach Jerry Greeley said. He saw the Jared Box Project as a great opportunity to get the players working with his special needs students from Pocono Mountain.

The Jared Box Project was created in 2001 by students at Our Lady of Victory School in State College to honor a classmate who was battling an incurable brainstem tumor.

The boxes passed out Thursday were filled with a selection of toys gender and age specific for boys and girls, including small dolls or matchbox toy cars, puzzles, crayons and markers.

The players and students carried 757 Jared boxes into the hospital, distributing a few to the four children in the hospital’s fourth floor children’s wing. Due to the large number of boxes donated, many were stored for later distribution as other children are admitted to the hospital or come in for a procedure.

Toys can help calm a child’s fears as hospital staff is working to help them get well, said Bonnie Rice, a registered nurse and Pediatric Department manager at Geisinger Wyoming Valley.

“The whole thing is to make them feel comfortable and in a safe environment, so they feel safe and secure and are happy while they are here. … Children need to be surrounded by play things. They need to be surrounded by things they are enjoy doing,” she said.

Garett Colombo, 6, of Honesdale has been in and out of hospitals since October as doctors have been trying to find out what makes him ill.

His mother, Jessica Colombo, was happy to see the toys because her son had become bored and could only think about going home.

“It’s great. It keeps him occupied. It means a lot to us. There is so much for him to do,” she said.

Garett seemed to forget his troubles as he opened the Jared Boxes and began playing with the puzzle games inside.

Once a child is given a Jared Box, it becomes theirs to do with as they wish.

Jacob Maher of Mountain Top received some toys also. While the 11 year old appreciated the gifts he was also looking to bring a smile to his 14-year-old sister, Sarah’s face by giving her the coloring books. Their father, Steve Maher, explained that Sarah, who has autism, loves to color.

Children at the hospital were not the only ones who benefited from the project.

Pocono Mountain student Celeste Avrles, 19, understands how children feel after being admitted to the hospital. She was in the hospital numerous times as a child to have surgery on her legs and eyes.

“They need to have fun in the hospital. They need to have fun a little bit and have their days get lightened up a little bit,” she said.

One of her teachers, Joe Franzo, said the project allowed some of the students -- who use walking devices, suffer hearing loss or have a mental ailment – to learn they too can help others.

“A lot of people do community service for our students because of their disabilities. We promote them to do community service for others. So it is something that sticks with them in the sense that they can get a lot from helping others, just as others help them,” he said.

This was King’s College student Lee Nentwig’s first year participating in the Jared Box program, and it is unlikely to be his last.

He said the program helps him and his teammates recognize how fortunate they are to be healthy, while also bringing smiles to the faces of younger children.

“We tend to take advantage of a lot of things in life and we get caught up with ourselves sometimes. These kids who are dealing with much harder issues to keep such a positive attitude, that is something I really admire from them,” he said.