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As many of you know, I have been working on a project with my students, friends and neighbors to decorate cheerful place mats for children at our local children’s hospital. The project was initially encouraged by the food service staff that I spoke to at the Children’s Hospital in Oakland, so I decided to spread the word by writing about it on my blog. I have received wonderful feedback from you, and the traffic on my blog has nearly tripled, since.

BUT, there appears to be trouble. I decided to follow up with the hospital so that I could get some exact information about where people should mail their finished place mats. The person I spoke to this time, was concerned about the safety risks that our project might pose for their patients. Since then, I have spoken with several more hospital staff (getting a few mixed messages along the way), and this evening we got our verdict.

We can NOT send in our place mats and expect them to be delivered to the patients with their meals. In fact, the people in the “quality department” have determined that they are so worried about germs that they are no longer going to allow cards from the public to be delivered to patients, either. Oh my – imagine the guilt I am feeling. Here I am, just trying to build community and cheer up some children who could use a smile…and now they are changing hospital policies! I am sure that they have had some issues in the past that have compromised the health of the children, and are now acting in their best interest…but it is hard not to feel like my efforts didn’t cause trouble.

My main contact there now is very sad about this development and is planning to speak with me again next week to see if we can come up with a compromise. She loves what we are doing and loves how it would make her patients feel. For now, anyway, we need to put down our markers and stickers, and wait until we can do this project safely. It IS for the kids, after all.