12/13/2023
Hi everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve reintroduced Lights For Kids and myself so I ask you for a moment of time to tell you my story and about the charitable work we do at Lights For Kids.
My name is Olivia Messina and I am the founder of Lights For Kids. I’m a 20-year-old third-year honors student studying Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati. Lights For Kids (LFK) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to making hospital stays easier for children across the U.S. Hospital stays can often cause large amounts of loneliness, stress, anxiety, and depression in children which slows the healing process. We work to make a child's hospital room a more comforting, cheerful, and healing environment through the donation of string lights (for kids to decorate their rooms with) and joy-bringing items (used by child life specialists to help distract children from the scariness and pain of medical procedures and the hospital setting in general).
What a lot of people don’t realize or understand is the importance of what we do. Any parent who’s had a child in the hospital understands the struggle of not being able to be with their child 24/7 during the hospitalization. Work, other children, other (holiday) responsibilities or obligations, sometimes kids are alone in hospital. Our lights help children feel less alone and scared during their hospital stays. They make the hospital rooms more cheerful, welcoming spaces that kids are comfortable staying in. Our joy-bringing items are mostly used by child life specialists to help distract kids from the scariness and pain of medical procedures and the hospital setting in general. But during this time of year, many children’s hospitals set up mini gift shops for parents to pick out holiday gifts for their kids using the donations they receive. Hospital stays cause tight budgets and sometimes don’t leave enough money for presents. These gift shops created by the donations of others relieve the stress of parents of not having enough money for gifts and helps ensure that every child receives a present during the holidays.
This picture is of me on the day I was discharged from UH Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital. I had major surgery on December 16th, 2016 to correct a defect in my leg that prevented me from walking correctly. A 1-night stay turned into 3 due to pain management issues. The surgery was during my favorite time of year—8 days before Hanukkah, 9 days before Christmas, and 6 days before my birthday. The hospital was the last place I wanted to be. I was stressed, anxious, and in a lot of pain. But what helped me through my hospital stay (besides the amazing staff, and my friends & family) was my string lights that I brought from home. They brought me comfort, joy, and cheer at a time when I was lacking in all three and struggled to find them in the hospital. The lights also proved to have the added benefit of helping the nurses during the night by providing them with enough light to see while checking on me without having to turn on the light above my head and wake me up. When I was getting discharged, I gave my lights to a little boy across the hall who was going to have to spend Christmas and New Years in the hospital. His face lit up with excitement as his grandmother helped him put them up in his hospital room. I knew they were going to help him like they helped me.
Fast forward about 10 months to my freshman year at Solon High School. I decided that I wanted to collect lights to donate to UH Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital to help kids who were going to be hospitalized during the holidays. My goal was to give lights as many sick kids as possible to give them a source of comfort and happiness during their times of struggles and pain. That year, I donated 213 lights thanks to my SHS peers and supporters who donated. Since then I’ve been working extremely hard to reach as many sick kids as possible across the U.S. with lights and joy-bringing items (toys). In 2020, I officially turned my work into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization called Lights For Kids. To date, we’ve reached 38 children's hospitals in 27 U.S. states and have donated 5,140 sets of lights and 1,134 joy-bringing items.
I want to continue doing this important work for as long as possible. But I can’t do it alone. Lights For Kids relies solely on the support of the community. I ask you to please consider spreading some kindness and cheer to kids and families who are in rough circumstances due to medical issues. Use this opportunity as a teaching lesson for your kids about the importance of giving to others and spreading kindness. I need your help!
You may be wondering, “how can I help spread kindness and cheer?” DONATE! The following images are the items we’re collecting, where our donation collection bins are, and how to make a monetary donation via PayPal and Venmo.
I appreciate your time, attention, and support! To learn more, please check out lights4kids.org. Questions or comments can be left in the comment section below, PMed to me, or emailed to [email protected]. Don’t forget to follow Lights For Kids on Facebook at . Thank you and happy holidays!!!
