Volunteer Options with Eliana's Light for 2024

Eliana's Light is coordinating groups of volunteers who gather within their businesses, organizations, and homes to decorate and fill large Halloween-themed plastic cups with trick-or-treat items that would be appropriate for patients between 4 years old and 15 years old who will be receiving medical and therapeutic care at the Kennedy Krieger Institute over Halloween. The cups can have stickers on them and be filled with items that support therapies (e.g., small Pop-Its and fidgets, small containers of therapy putty, Halloween-themed pencils and notepads, and related trinkets with a small amount of candy). Eliana's Light will collect the finished cups by Oct. 25th for distribution at Kennedy Krieger right before or on Halloween.

Eliana's Light is coordinating groups of volunteers who gather within their businesses, organizations, and homes to decorate and fill fabric or paper bags with items that give comfort to kids and/or caregivers. We welcome some bags specifically for kids (between birth and 10 years), and some specifically for caregivers. Appropriate items for kids include: Wubbanub pacifiers, small white noise and lullaby music machines, infant hats and socks, etc. Appropriate items for caregivers include: aromatherapy heat wraps, foot massage balls, journals, Apple and Android phone chargers, adult mandala coloring books and colored pencils, etc. The outside of the bags should be decorated in an uplifting and age-appropriate way (e.g., with drawings of flowers, suns, etc.). Eliana's Light will provide further guidance to those who are interested, collect the finished products by Dec. 13, and distribute the gift bags in collaboration with staff who are partners in providing a whole health approach to care at the hospital.

If any volunteers are interested in going to the Kennedy Krieger Institute and help it look festive for patients who are staying there over the December holidays, Eliana's Light is coordinating opportunities for 1 or more groups to go there. Volunteers would thus have an opportunity to see some patients and be in the environment where many receive long-term care.

We welcome the collaboration of organizations that can host drives for these items that we provide to local families in need that include a child who as a complex medical condition. We've done drives in various ways over the years, including at a concert!

We welcome volunteers who can help us "behind the scenes". We are especially looking for volunteers with expertise in connecting with companies that could give in-kind donations.