By Justin RouillonMonday 25 Nov 2019ChristmasReading Time: 3 minutes
This festive season you can bring hope into the hospital, with 96five’s Heart of Christmas.
This is your chance to support some of our bravest Queenslanders and their families, through the Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Nick van Dyke is the Director of Patient and Family Support with the Foundation, and told 96five that it was of the utmost importance to support families who will be unable to leave the Queensland Children’s Hospital over Christmas.
“For those families who are here over Christmas, they’re generally the sickest kids in Queensland.”
“The hospital does send families home where possible because it’s important for them to be with their families. So, for the kids who are in the hospital, we want to make sure it’s the most magical experience. We have teams of volunteers to try and improve that stay over the Christmas period.”
Listen to the full interview with Nick in the audio player above.
Nurse Jamie is a clinical nurse and echoes that sentiment, saying that staff will go out of their way to support the children at Christmas.
“A lot of staff actually put their hands up to work on Christmas Day; if we have long shifts we split them in half so we can see our families but also be there for the kids as well. The guys who work Christmas day will also get dressed up as elves and help Santa hand out presents.”
Nurse Jamie: “We try and be the biggest family we can be.”
How You Can Help
Obviously volunteering some of your time is a great way to help kids in the hospital, but if that’s not an option, you can get behind 96five’s Heart of Christmas.
You can bring smiles and joy when you donate a toy or gift that will end up in the hands of a sick kid this Christmas. To launch the campaign, Ken, Nicky and Steve will be broadcasting live from the Queensland Children’s Hospital School on Friday December 6th. Feel free to stop by, say hello and drop off a gift between 6 and 9am.
Then for the next two weeks the 96five Street Machines will be heading all over the city – you’ll be able to drop off your gifts at the following locations between 3 and 4pm.
| Monday | December 9th | New Farm Park |
| Tuesday | December 10th | Pelican Park, Hornibrook Esplanade, Clontarf |
| Wednesday | December 11th | Underwood Park, Underwood Rd, Underwood |
| Thursday | December 12th | W.Poole Playground, Wynnum Esplanade, Wynnum |
| Friday | December 13th | Orion Lagoon, Southern Cross Cct, Springfield |
| Monday | December 16th | Teralba Park, Pullen Rd, Everton Park |
| Tuesday | December 17th | Mount Gravatt Showgrounds, Logan Rd, Mount Gravatt |
| Wednesday | December 18th | Memorial Park, Oxford St, Bulimba |
| Thursday | December 19th | Mt Coot-tha Lookout |
You can also bring your gift in to the 96five Studios, weekdays between 9am and 4pm.
Because these gifts are going into hospitals – there are a couple of guidelines to stick to – which helps the Children’s Hospital Foundation to ensure toys donated are suitable and safe for the patients and their siblings. The guidelines and gift suggestions are available here.
Look out for a drop off point near you!
Please keep in mind that many children are confined to beds or wards, so toys they can play with straight away are better than toys that need to stay in the box (eg outside toys, pool toys, skateboards, scooters and pogo sticks).
We suggest you keep each gift to an average cost of between $5 – $30. This is to assist with all children receiving a gift of similar value this Christmas season.
If you can’t make it to a drop off point you can make a donation to the Children’s Hospital Foundation here.