Thursday, December 18, 2008
U-M athletes delivering good cheer
ANGELIQUE S. CHENGELIS / THE DETROIT NEWS
ANN ARBOR -- Ten-year-old Dominic, a tinted Mohawk atop his small head and his body wrapped in colorful pajamas, made his way to the lobby of C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, walking attached to a ventilator.
His mother, Paula Sirbaugh of Napoleon, in true holiday spirit, attached two brown pipe cleaners shaped like reindeer ears to the top of the ventilator, and a red puffball in the middle, giving it the Rudolph touch. On the ventilator tube connected to her son, a flashing green Christmas tree.
This was a big night for Dominic, a fourth-grader with VATER Syndrome. He has endured multiple health problems since birth.
Thursday nights are always big at Mott Children's Hospital, a vibrant facility that somehow gives very sick children a very positive perspective.
Or maybe it's the other way around.
At about 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays, a group of Michigan athletes, usually around 40 of them, gather at Mott as part of the "From the Heart" program started by Ed Boullion in 1991 after his daughter, Channon, diagnosed with cancer, spent 15 months at the hospital. Channon's cancer remains in remission.
This is not about extra class credit or skipping study sessions.
This truly is about goodwill, as athletes spend several hours visiting children in hospital rooms. They take hats as gifts, but mostly, the visits are about interaction.
"People wonder, 'Why do you go to the hospital every week, isn't it depressing visiting sick kids all the time?' " said Kristin Thomas, a senior soccer player who has been participating in the program since her freshman year. "But seeing their reaction to us coming in and having parents tell us this is the first time their child has smiled in a week is amazing.
"It puts everything in perspective. It really brings you back down to earth and makes me realize how lucky I am. I look forward to it every week. It definitely has changed my college experience."
Enjoyment all aroundThere is no doubt there's an exchange.
It's difficult, however, to tell who takes more from the visits.
"When I'm really sick, it feels like I'm not sick when I see them," Dominic said.
Dominic has been at Mott since Nov. 25. He's had multiple stays at the hospital.
"There are times he is really, really, really sick, and he knows when the athletes are coming," Sirbaugh said. "He'll say, barely awake, 'Mom, it's Thursday, the athletes are coming. Tell them to come in even if I'm asleep,' and they always do. And they'll always leave things, so he'll wake up and know the athletes have been there. Just knowing that makes him important."
Peter Vanderkaay, the Olympic swimmer who still makes the Mott visits even though he no longer is a Michigan athlete, is a patient-favorite. Last Thursday during the visit, he was unassuming in his black jacket and an identification sticker that read, "Peter V," but dangling from a side pocket was the broad red ribbon attached to the gold medal he won in the 800-meter relay at the Beijing Olympics.
The medal is quite the calling card, and the kids love it.
"It's heavy," 6-year-old Reese, a seventh-floor patient, said in her small voice as she handed the medal back to Vanderkaay after taking a picture with three athletes.
GarRick Williams, 19, is in a wheelchair and suffers from multiple epiphyseal dysplasia, a disease with which he was born. In simplistic terms, it means his bones break easily.
"The hospital is like my second life," Williams said. "They (athletes) are an inspiration. They come to visit us, and they don't even get paid. They ask quality questions. We talk for a while, and I just enjoy it a whole lot."
Williams carried with him a Sharpie pen for autographs. Last week, he held an art show at the hospital displaying his drawings of comic book heroes of his creation -- Chemo Man and Radiation Man.
He is an equal-opportunity fan of the athletes. But then again ...
"The cheerleaders are really nice," Williams said, smiling.
Healthy returnThe smiles, after all, are what "From the Heart" is all about.
"It's really about interacting with the kids and getting as much out of it as they do," said Michigan offensive lineman David Moosman. "I've been coming here for a while. You really see a lot of courage and a lot of good things come out of this on both ends, from their part and ours. It's for them, but we also get a lot out of it, and once you come, you come a lot. You kind of get hooked on it."
Dr. Valerie Castle, chair of the department of pediatrics at Mott, is a small, energetic woman with an enormous responsibility at the hospital. She is eager for the opening of the new Mott Children's Hospital in 2012, a state-of-the-art facility housing 348 beds in single rooms.
It will be a huge step for the children's hospital that in its current state is largely outdated in terms of room size and efficiencies for patients' families.
"It looks big, but it's not big if you're in here three weeks," Castle said, while touring one of the rooms.
Castle has seen "From the Heart" grow from something involving only Michigan football players to its current organization. When the children check into Mott, the admission notes include asking what sports the child likes, so that athletes from those sports pay visits.
"It's been huge for the cancer program," Castle said.
Cody Waters, a fifth-year senior wrestler, is a Thursday-night regular at Mott, and it's been that way his entire college career. His is a kid at heart, and his goal is to make these sick children smile and laugh, even at his expense -- he revealed to Reese that he still has his childhood blanket with him, a revelation that made her smile.
"I can have a bad day or I can have a bad practice, and I've made it a point to make sure I come here every week I'm in town, because I know that coming here makes me happy, it makes me feel good, because I see these kids, and I see all the kids have a smile on their faces," Waters said. "That makes me feel good. I can think, 'Oh, I got my butt kicked in practice, but I'm going to go in and meet these kids who are sick, and they can laugh and have a good time.' My life's not that bad, I'm OK.
"People don't realize how much this means to us, but it does. That's why we come back."
You can reach Angelique S. Chengelis at angelique.chengelis@detnews.com.
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