The Alyssa Alvin Foundation for Hope (AAFH) sponsored an Art and Music Night at the Ronald McDonald House near Advocate Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn, IL on Monday, September 10th. We also donated various Alyssa Starter Art Kits while there with delivery of an assortment of kits made to the House Manager -Jenna Embree.
Each time we do an Art and Music Night we have a different experience which is part of what makes them so enjoyable. We try to utilize different mediums – paints, crayons, colored pencils – and different themes – holidays, seasons, etc. Sometimes we have multi-generation participation and sometimes, like this evening, we have multi-sibling participation.
On Monday, we were joined by Angel (8 years old), Anthony (4 years old), Cruz (11 years old), Lana (6 years old) and Ian (1 year-old) in cutting out colored foam paper to glue on to a background with a Halloween theme. The children were also given a coloring sheet with art crayons which they were allowed to keep for their own home use. Additionally, each of the participants were able to select their own Alyssa Starter Art Kit. Their father told us how appreciative he was that his children had a creative activity to occupy them while their newborn sister faced heart surgery at Advocate Children’s hospital. It was clear that the kids had a wonderful time drawing, cutting and even creating Halloween masks.
Alyssa’s life and love of the arts continues to bring joy to young patients and their families. We are so happy to carry on Alyssa’s legacy and so grateful to those who share our vision and support our Foundation!
