Friday, December 7, 2007 12:07 AM CST
Cops for Kids drives west to help young patients
By HERB MEEKER, Staff Writer
hmeeker@jg-tc.com
It was the longest toy delivery for the Mattoon Police Department’s Cops for Kids program.
On Thursday, police officers Travis Easton, Jeff Branson, Adam Jenkins and Tim St. John drove $1,500 worth of toys and games to cancer patients at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis. Ten-year-old Landon Stuckey, who has received treatment at Cardinal Glennon, requested his share of Cops for Kids gifts go to children at the hospital.
“We bought everything but stuffed animals. It’s hard for the hospital staff to sanitize them,” said Easton, a Mattoon detective. “We had everything from arts and crafts to hand-held video games. This trip is a first for us. We’re about helping kids, and not just kids in Mattoon.”
Stuckey, one of 53 children involved in the Cops for Kids program this year in Mattoon, helped distribute the toys, with the assistance of the officers, to different departments at the children’s hospital.
Cardinal Glennon Recreational Therapist David Ish said Stuckey’s donation was “pretty unusual” for the volume of gifts.
“Every once in awhile you hear of this with parents telling us their child’s birthday gifts will go to the hospital, but this is on a bigger scale,” said Ish, who works in the Child Life Department at Cardinal Glennon.
The Child Life Department works with children to address their medical issues and assess their fears as well. But toys and games can also help ease some of the pain.
“We’re here to support them any way we can in the hospital. Sometimes, it involves toys,” Ish said.
Ish also praised Stuckey for thinking about others while he faces a battle with cancer.
“He’s a great kid. He wanted other kids to enjoy what he could have enjoyed,” Ish said.
Contact Herb Meeker at hmeeker@jg-tc.com or 238-6869
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HisChild wrote on Dec 7, 2007 10:42 AM: