Choose your hospital of choice, pick your gift, and feel good knowing exactly where your donation will go.
When children are hospitalized for illness or treatment, it can be one of the most challenging times for not only their physical health, but their mental health. Whether they are anxiously awaiting treatment, nervously learning about their diagnosis, or feeling isolated in their rooms, the hospital experience can quickly become traumatic.
Every day, hundreds of hospitals across the country are asking for our programs to help provide their kids with emotional support during their stay. From activity kits to interactive gaming stations, Starlight Canada provides immediate, mental relief to a hospital’s most fragile, paediatric patients. With over 100 hospital partners and more than 36,000 requests for Starlight’s Canada’s programs, the need for support is tremendous. That’s where you come in.
Introducing Starlight Canada’s Hospital Wish List – a first of its kind, online platform that lets you see the live needs of our in-hospital programs within your community and across Canada.
This unique platform gives YOU the power to see hospital requests directly, allows you to choose which hospital you want to help, and exactly how you want to help them. In just a few clicks, you can provide comfort, joy, and relief to help hospitalized kids in your community and beyond get through the pain and fear of their illness.
In celebration of March being Child Life Month, join us in supporting Certified Child Life Specialists, like Karina Milard, who rely on Starlight Canada’s in-hospital programs in their day-to-day work.
When she was just 8 years old, Karina was admitted to the hospital due to a problem with her appendix. At the hospital, she was treated like an adult – nothing was explained to her in a way she could understand, which left her feeling very scared and confused. After learning about the Child Life field, Karina knew that she wanted to help play a part in providing comfort to kids and teens in hospital so that they wouldn’t have to experience what she did as a child.
“Starlight Canada programs make a world of difference for the mental health of thousands of hospitalized children and their families,” shares Karina, who has been a Certified Child Life Specialist for 14 years. “They provide a variety of different uses for varied age groups, to ensure all paediatric patients’ emotional needs are met. Child Life Specialists work hand in hand with Starlight Canada to help alleviate the fear and anxiety kids and teens face, making these programs a crucial part of a Specialist’s toolbox.”
Karina wholeheartedly believed in our mission as a Certified Child Life Specialist, that it led her to joining the Starlight Canada team. As our Associate Director of Children’s Services, she now works alongside hundreds of Certified Child Life Specialists nationally, helping to ease the hospital experience of thousands of seriously ill children.
You too can be part of the magic across Canada.
See the gifts you can give below to help a hospitalized child.
“Amazing gifts like these really brighten not just her day, but mine as well,” shared Cristina, mom of Aly who was stuck in-hospital. “It gives us something new to explore and play with together and forget some of the current stresses for a moment.”