WVU Medicine Golisano Children’s launches Project Balloon
WVU Medicine Golisano Children’s Hospital has launched a program to lift the spirits of its young patients.
Project Balloon allows hospital providers and Child Life staff to request a balloon and a get-well card be sent to a child’s bedside from the gift shop – a request that will be immediately fulfilled.
The program is a collaboration among the Morgantown, W.Va. hospital; the Waynesburg-based child advocacy nonprofit Growing Up Greene, First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Greene County, and its West Virginia subsidiary First Greene Mortgage.
It was a personal experience that inspired Aaron Houser, executive director of Growing Up Greene, to create the program.
Houser said his middle son had a congenital heart defect, and their family knew that around his 3rd birthday he would require open heart surgery.
During his son’s five-day recovery, “His room was filled with eight or 10 balloons that had been sent by family, co-workers, our friends. Every time a new balloon came in, his eyes lit up like magic,” Houser said.
But as he walked the halls during his son’s stay, Houser noticed other children who didn’t have rooms with balloons or family members there to support them. He wanted all of the young patients to feel the same magic his son did, and came up with Project Balloon.
“The gift shop here and the Child Life team have been so amazing to just immediately jump on board with this,” he said.
The Child Life program supports children as they cope with stress from hospitalizations and illnesses.
Houser said Project Balloon raised $10,000 from private donors and Greene County churches to launch the program. First Federal will donate another $5,000 later this year, and has pledged regular donations to sustain the program.
Trump learned about the project when he asked Houser how his son was doing after the surgery and knew he wanted to help.
“As soon as we heard about what was on his heart, that placed it on ours. … This is just how good things happen: People support and partner with one another,” Trump said.