Here To Play
Our Programs
Volunteers bring play to children
Play is educational, conducive to healing, and, above all, fun. At medical facilities across the country, our dedicated corps of trained volunteers, dressed in yellow Project Sunshine t-shirts and equipped with creative arts and crafts materials, visit patients at bedsides, waiting rooms, clinics, and playrooms. These activities and connections with volunteers alleviate the stress of hospital stays and medical procedures while promoting key aspects of childhood such as socialization, creative expression, intellectual stimulation, and sensory integration.
Here to Play in Three Ways
Creative Arts & Crafts
Creative Arts and Crafts is a program in which Project Sunshine volunteers bring materials and facilitate arts and crafts activities, which encourage self-expression and imagination. Our volunteers bring Program Boxes as their activities for the session.
Program Boxes consist of developmentally appropriate materials and instruction sheets that are delivered to Project Sunshine volunteers nationwide each month. This streamlined, consistent model allows volunteers to arrive fully prepared with the activity and materials needed (so as not to strain the hospital’s supplies) to create shared moments of joy and connection with pediatric patients and their families, responding to the childhood need to explore, socialize, and play.
Here To Party
Party Time is a large-scale event that brightens holidays and other landmark occasions, providing a setting for pediatric patients and families to celebrate, honor traditions, and connect. Most of our Party Time events are underwritten by corporate sponsors and staffed by volunteers from the sponsoring company and overseen by Project Sunshine staff.
Caregiver Wellness
Caregiver Wellness is a program that temporarily transforms a designated space into a soothing
environment for parents and caregivers with relaxation activities and massages, aromatherapy, calming breathing exercises, or chair yoga provided by experts. This program can be requested by the medical facility and is either underwritten by a corporate sponsor or facilitated by community volunteers.