Child’s Play Charities receives the Child Life Disaster Relief Impact Donor of the Year award. Their funding and their vision has had a significant impact on CLDR’s ability to help children and their families cope during natural and man-made disasters.
In August of 2017, Child’s Play reached out to CLDR during the devastation of Hurricane Harvey and awarded CLDR with funding to make sure that those children and families, as well as all future children and families, have the support and resources needed to cope with any disaster situation. Since then, we at CLDR have learned so much more about the heart behind Child’s Play Charities and why they do what they do. One thing that has struck us most is that they always think above and beyond. They don’t just consider the bare-bones of how to accomplish much with little, but they think about the world as it could be. They put no limits on their vision, and because of that they are inspiring a movement focused on meeting the needs of children in highly stressful situations.
Child’s Play funding and vision has catapulted CLDR forward in meeting our mission and goals. We continue to catch on to their contagious ambition and are excited about the future tools, support, and resources we can provide children and families who suffer devastating loss after a disaster. Children are forever changed during highly stressful events, but with Child’s Play’s support, we aim to turn that difficult adversity into a positive change-agent for how they view themselves, the world, and the struggles they endured.
Thank you, Child’s Play, for your impact on so many children and families.
If you would like to learn more or donate to Child’s Play Charities, please visit: http://childsplaycharity.org/ or check them out on Facebook.
Leah Nawrocki and Abby Youngblom deployed for a weekend to serve with our partner Children’s Disaster Services after Hurricane Harvey. We connected them directly with Child’s Play for continued support. In their own words: “As child life specialists, we know that play can help children cope with any type of life transition. For children at Driscoll Children’s Hospital, those served both inpatient and outpatient in the fall of 2017, Hurricane Harvey was something that most likely affected either them directly or affected their family or friends in surrounding cities. For these children one of the best ways we could help them during this uncertain time was using play as distraction, as normalization, and as a way of initiating healthy discussions regarding the events of this natural disaster. Play was one of the most consistent things in these patients lives at that time. We are so grateful that Child’s Play generously donated the portable game system for patient use, to especially help them during this time.”