Thursday, July 10th, 2008...2:11 pm
Make Your Placemat for kids even BETTER!
On the day that we posted our first Recipe For Action, our blog got more hits than ever. Even though I heard from only a few of you, I am getting some great feedback about this project.
In case you didn’t see the original post, here is a summary of the project in a nut-shell. We are working with our kids and their friends to decorate place mats to send to children in our local children’s hospital. It is just one small way that we can build community during mealtime.
So often, children who are going through chemotherapy, for example, have little appetite and could use any encouragement that they can get to make it through the process in one piece. Time for us to step in and share some love at meal time!
I wanted to share some of your great ideas for making this project even better:
- Laminate your place mats before sending them to the hospital. This will make them easy to clean, and they can be reused or displayed as a colorful piece of art work.
- Don’t forget – the place mat has two sides! Write your personal message on one side, and do something fun, colorful and interactive on the other side.
- Here are some fun ideas: paste on comics from the Sunday Newspaper; make a collage of pretty pictures; paste on blank sudoku, crossword or word-search puzzles; include dot-to-dot puzzles; stickers, stickers and more stickers!
- Remember – since these will be laminated, the children can wipe a puzzle clean and can do it again!
- Good message ideas include: Feel Better, Happy Birthday, We Are Thinking of You, Here is a Hug!
So far, Paige and Joyce have decided to organize a playdate with 10 of their friends to make place mats. Jen and Claire will be doing some collage place mats, using pictures torn out of an old Snow White book. And Jacie is working on some place mats with her children and their friends this summer.
What about you? I can’t wait to hear what you are doing! Please let us know and send us pictures of your finished products!
If you like the idea, paste our Recipe for Action image into your blog and share the idea with your readers! Together, we can build community during mealtime and cheer up kids who can certainly use a smile!
12 Comments
July 12th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Wonderful idea! I’m sure the children’s families appreciate the love and support too. So fabulous! Are you making placemats for Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital?
July 12th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Hi Susan,
Thank you so much for your feedback. Yes, that is the hospital for kids that is closest to us. I hope you and your kidsdecide to join us! Let us know if you do
July 14th, 2008 at 8:41 am
How big or small do they need to be? Where do we send them when we are done?
July 14th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
HI Christian,
The place mats that we purchased at our restaurant supply store are 10 x 14 inches.
We hope to send ours to the Children’s Hospital in Oakland, CA, but need to work through some kinks. Because sanitation is of the utmost concern, we may have to come up with another way to distribute the place mats so that everyone stays safe.
July 14th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
As a co-founder of the Metro Detroit Nanny Council, one of our objectives is community service and choosing at least one big project to work on every year. I just wanted to let you know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea, and while it might take a few months to get it started, Im going to implement this into an activitiy for our group.
July 14th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
HI Carli,
I had a frustrating phone call with the hospital today – they are concerned about the sanitation aspect. We are checking into things further and I’ll post an update when I know more. I would hate to have people do a project with such good intentions and then have it not received well on their end. I imagined the kids receiving the place mats with a meal, and then either using the puzzles on them or hanging them up afterwards. They weren’t meant to be shared between kids or used for food loads of times – plus, the lamination should allow for them to be cleaned easily. I hope it all works out! PLEASE keep us posted on your progress, too!
You made me smile sooo big when I read your comment
July 15th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Hi!I really love this idea!!I`m going to post about it on my blog with a link back to yours!!Hope you have a blessed day!!
July 15th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Hi Toni,
Thanks for your support!!
I can’t wait to hear how it goes
Michelle
July 16th, 2008 at 7:56 am
love this idea being a cancer survivor myself and spending time in a hosptial. i was just wondering if you cared if i shared this idea with a creative group i belong to.
They are made up of all levels of crafting and some artists who this would be up there alley.
i will mention the lamination part the only problem with cancer patients sometimes if the children’s blood counts are low they limit the different things they are allowed to be around.
for me it was fruit and flowers and believe it or not vegetables.
But i do wish you much luck and think it is a great idea
all the best nora
July 18th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Thanks for your kind words, Nora! It looks like some hospitals might not find this project sanitary enough for us to use at all… We are going to work on a compromise. I’d love any ideas, if you have them, on how to continue this project safely.
July 26th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Am wondering, if the hospitals won’t allow this for children, if it might be a good idea to do for nursing homes…
August 3rd, 2008 at 8:25 am
Michele,
This is genius! What a wonderful idea!!
I did get the contact information for the person I need to speak with at UC San Francisco – perhaps they will be a little more accommodating. But your idea is also fantastic and we might try this as well!
Thank you!
Michelle
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