When Chael Mynear visited a family member at St. Luke’s Children Hospital in Boise he was surprised at the lack of distractions available for the ill patients. While he understood that there would be a limit on some types of entertainment options, he thought what was available was pretty limited and outdated.
Flip ahead a few months and Mynear still had that observation in mind when he was handed a community service project opportunity for a class at Emmett Middle School. The service project outline allowed him the opportunity to think up a way to meet someone’s need. The boredom that his hospital visits had revealed came immediately to mind.
This month that is playing out in a drive that Mynear is heading up to give the “entertainment” resources at the regional Children’s Hospital a boost.
After contacting St. Lukes, the sixth grader created an inventory of the items that were acceptable and then a plan to gather those resources. For various reasons, items like electronics such as video games are not considered suitable. But DVDs, board games and coloring supplies do fit the hospital requirements and appear to be resonating with Emmett community members as well.
To date Mynear has collected over 150 DVDs and a growing amount of the board games and coloring supplies he targeted. He is hoping to double that amount by the end of March so he can organize a delivery to the Boise hospital prior to his project completion deadline in April.
All DVDs and other materials must meet child appropriate standards and be either new or near new with all components present and accounted for.
Community members can contribute to the cause by dropping off materials or donations at Potter Funeral Chapel or at the Messenger Index through March 31.
