Andrew Weatherly, 17, put a face on his plastic pumpkin while eating fresh donuts Thursday inside the UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital.
Dunkin’ Donuts brought donuts and 40 plastic pumpkins to the hospital for its Pumpkins for Munchkins event.
During the Halloween event, hospital patients decorated plastic pumpkins and took pictures with Sprinkles, the Dunkin’ Donuts mascot.
Child life assistant Ashley Auplant coordinates with organizations to bring hands-on activities to Shands for patients with sensitive immune systems.
“We always try to do interactive things with the children while they’re here,” Auplant said. “It helps to normalize their stay and provide a distraction.”
While patients can’t experience pumpkin carving in the hospital, they were able to glue faces onto their realistic plastic pumpkins donated by Dunkin’ Donuts.
Some patients are in intensive-care situations and held in isolation because of the monitors and heavy equipment, Auplant said. The child life specialists at the hospital bring activities directly into the rooms of children who can’t normally participate with the others in the community playroom. The patients range in age from two days to 21 years old.
“Even patients who are immunally compromised sometimes come into the playroom with a mask on and lift it to eat ice cream,” said child life specialist Amanda McLeod.
The holiday season at Shands is planned around specific themed events. These plastic pumpkins allow the patients to take the Halloween experience into their rooms. Due to allergies, germs and safety, no real flowers or plants are allowed in the hospital rooms, McLeod said.
The Dunkin’ Donuts & Baskin-Robbins Community Foundation dedicates a week every year to give back to the community.
“We thought we could come in and make the kids’ Halloween a little brighter,” said Betsy Beck, a marketing manager of Dunkin’ Brands.
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 10/24/2014]
Andrew Weatherly (right), 17, decorates his plastic pumpkin with his mom while Sprinkles, the Dunkin’ Donuts mascot, poses.
