DAYTON, Ohio — Halloween came to the hospital this year for the young patients who could not go out to meet it. Dayton Children’s Hospital brought Halloween to patients and families who could not take part in traditional trick-or-treating, WHIO reported on Friday morning, October 30.
The hospital’s youngest patients got a celebration of their own. This Halloween, the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit transformed into a traveling circus, complete with a tiny tiger and a little box of popcorn, Dayton Children’s Hospital said in its own post about the celebration — “the tiniest stars of the circus show,” in the hospital’s words.
Longtime partners joined in the fun for patients across the hospital. Spirit Halloween recently brought Halloween games and costumes to Dayton Children’s patients, the hospital said, and the company has raised more than $703,000 since 2011 to support children at Dayton Children’s, according to the hospital.
Dayton Children’s is the only facility in the region devoted to the health, safety and information needs of children and their families, and as a regional referral center it draws patients from a 20-county area that includes Ohio and eastern Indiana, according to the hospital. For families spending the holiday inside its walls, a costume, a game and a visit from the circus are a way to keep a childhood tradition intact on a day that illness would otherwise take away.
The Halloween celebration is one piece of a busy fall at the hospital, which this month also marked 29 years of its Cares for Kids Radiothon supporting its Canine Co-pilots facility dog team, according to the hospital. The facility dogs work with young patients year-round — but on Halloween, the stars were the babies in the NICU, dressed for the greatest show on earth.
Families across the Dayton area head out for beggars’ nights and trunk-or-treats this weekend. Inside Dayton Children’s, the holiday has already arrived — delivered room to room, costume by costume, so that no patient had to miss it.
Photo: Jason Zhang, CC BY-SA