Farmington Hills Girl Scouts Bring Toys, Clothes to Botsford

A group of Farmington Hills Girl Scouts delivered boxes of toys, games and other gifts, along with a basket of baby supplies, to Botsford Hospital last week, as a community service project. 

Using directions from The Jared Box Project, the 13 members of Junior Girl Scout Troop 70450, out of Warner Upper Elementary School, created and delivered boxes filled with small gifts, toys, cards, and games. Botsford Hospital staff will give the boxes to children to provide a special diversion as they receive treatment or visit a loved one who is a patient at the hospital. 

Launched in 2001, The Jared Box project honors a 5-year-old boy from Pennsylvania who lost his battle with cancer in 2000. 

Just before Halloween, Girl Scout Troop Leader Lisa Hannawa contacted The Botsford Foundation, which handles charitable gifts to the hospital, to schedule a date to bring in several Jared Boxes and a laundry basket filled with clothes and other necessities for an infant girl. 
 
Hannawa arrived with her daughter Savanna, 10, along with Priya Sahu, 10, and Alba Dajlani, 10, at Botsford’s New Beginnings Maternity Center where they were met by Botsford's Manager of Maternal-Child Health, Candice Templin, RN. 
 
"It's such a joy to be able to meet these wonderful girls again," said Templin. "We were bowled over earlier this year when this Girl Scout troop made a similar gift. But this time, they've added an amazingly generous gift to honor the founder of the Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low, whose 153rd birthday would have been on October 31. The new mom who received this large basket of supplies for her baby girl was lucky indeed." 
 
Templin took the girls on a tour of Botsford Hospital's newborn nursery, where the girls gazed in wonder at an infant who had just been born. Then, it was up to the Pediatrics Unit to have a look at an unoccupied pediatric patient room to understand what it might feel like to be a hospital patient. 
 
For ideas about community service projects that would benefit patients at Botsford Hospital, contact Diane Shane, The Botsford Foundation's manager of programs and services, at 248-442-5045 or dshane@botsford.org.  

Source: Botsford Hospital press release