lessons learned through
illness to young patients
Bears help brighten days
for children in hospital
Township youth brings
lessons learned through
illness to young patients
By linda denicola
Staff Writer
JERRY WOLKOWITZ Eisenhower Middle School, Freehold Township, student council representatives (l-r) Caitlin Holtz, 13, Michelle Caruso, 13, and Matt Doherty, 13, show bears that will be delivered to seriously ill children at a New Brunswick hospital. See page 35.
FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — Some-times it’s the little things that make a difference for children, especially children who are ill and spending a holiday in the hospital. Michelle Caruso, 13, remembers when she was in the hospital six years ago, so now she visits critically ill children at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and brings them teddy bears and hope.
For the second year in a row, Michelle and her mother, Jamie, plan to bring 10 bears to the hospital for Valentine’s Day. According to Michelle, she and her mother went to the Build a Bear Workshop store at Freehold Raceway Mall and made the bears.
"We gave them hearts," she said.
Her mother explained, "Michelle had leukemia almost six years ago. Because of that we continue to be involved with the hospital. She sits and talks with the children about the kinds of things that she went through. She apparently has been an enormous help."
Michelle said she was "in and out of the hospital for two years and so I know what they are going through. They talk to me about things and I tell them to have hope."
Michelle is healthy now and very active in school and out. She takes dance lessons, is a cheerleader and is the vice president of the student council at the township’s Eisenhower Middle School.
At Christmas time, Michelle got the whole student council involved in the bear project with the Starlight Children’s Foundation. The students raised enough money to purchase 32 bears that she and her mother brought to the hospital.
The foundation, whose mission is to brighten the lives of seriously ill children, serves more than 200,000 critically, chronically and terminally ill children throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. In addition to granting wishes for sick children, Starlight provides entertainment programs on hospital pediatric wards, funds special projects for hospitalized children and conducts a variety of outpatient activities.
For the past two years, the Starlight foundation has teamed up with Boyd’s Bears to help bring smiles to these seriously ill children in the hospital. By reaching out to corporations, schools and other organizations to make donations of $20 for each bear, Starlight was able to deliver more than 500 Boyd’s Bears to hospitalized children. The bear, named Vanessa R. Angel, was created exclusively for Starlight and is named for a 7-year-old girl who recently lost her battle with leukemia.
Although she usually goes to the hospital on holidays, Michelle said she will also go when asked.
"I’m happy that people can call and feel open to talk to me," she said.