Magic Hospital continued its tradition of bringing joy, laughter, and some special surprises to children in need at hospitals, orphanages, and migrant schools throughout Beijing. The hospitals enjoyed not only a visit from Santa and his elves, but also the ever-exciting clowns! The orphanages and migrant schools also received visits from Santa and his elves, which brought gifts and spent precious time with these incredible young people. The ages of the kids ranged from 1 to 22 years of age. The volunteers included children and adults this year, making it a unique opportunity for kids to experience the rewarding gift of giving. The visits were, as always, moments that all involved will not soon forget.
A special thanks to: BDA for their generosity of support and service, Babylegs for their ever-appreciated contribution, and Chiara Menegazzi, Dominic Johnson-Hill, Emily Hou, Alberto Duarte, Muffet Johnson-Hill and her fabulous kids and mother Ann for going above and beyond the call of duty.
Volunteers also include: Jonothan White, Kathy Ho, Andres Castillo, Amanda White, Joyce Yeo, Vivien, Clement, Sandro, Lucy, Valeria, Piero, Mawuli, Margherita, and Stefania
Will you come back tomorrow?
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2800 children celebrate T-shirt day’s 3rd edition
"Will you come back tomorrow?" That was a question from a little girl at a migrant school near Beijing who summarized the fun and excitement of this year’s T-Shirt Day better than any our descriptions could.
Magic Hospital's 3rd Annual T-Shirt Day was truly an event of Olympic proportion thanks to the help of our enthusiastic team of volunteers, most generous sponsors, and passionate institution staff! In honor of Children's Day, the event took place in children's hospitals, orphanages, and migrant schools in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. The volunteer teams distributed the new t-shirts and helped the kids decorate them with their new fabric markers. The event additionally included team-based games and sporting activities in honor of this year's theme, "Olympic Magic."
We strongly recommend Water Balloon Throwing and the Three-Legged Race to become Olympic disciplines!
Bringing the Olympics to children who will not enter Beijing's stadiums 8.8.08 was only made possible by the kindness and unwavering support of our supporters. We reached 2,800 children this year (up from 1,800 in the previous year). There were numerous testimonies shared by volunteers who were incredibly moved by their experience. T-Shirt Day demonstrated again this year that sharing a day of fun and laughter and providing some hope and joy is worth more than any gold medal in the world!
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following that made this event possible:
Our outstanding sponsors:
Goldenbridges.org, who provided talented, reliable, and hardworking team members!
Last, but certainly not least, we thank the 16 institutions/hospitals and migrant worker schools for their warm welcome as well as the 325 tireless and dedicated volunteers who shared their time and medal-worthy energy!
Magic shows, 600 paper cranes for the earthquake victims and an anniversary – MH Shanghai celebrates T-shirt Day in its own way
Actually the MH Shanghai crew pulled a doubke and celebrated the T-shirt day twice.
First they visited the 243 children in the Shanghai Pudong Special Education School, a school for cerebral palsy children.
The children participated in numerous activities, including folding 600 multi-colored paper cranes. Each one was a "good wish" for the earthquake victims in Sichuan.
Later that day, additional hands arrived with 8-12 year old volunteers from a local primary school who dressed up and performed two magic shows and then assisted the special needs children with coloring their t-shirts. What a great example of children helping children!
Magician and big fan of Magic Hospital Zhou Liang Tie from the Shanghai Circus joined in the T-Shirt day fun by performing for an additional 40 kids who are home schooled due to prolonged and severe illness.
On June 24th, Magic Hospital Shanghai held another T-Shirt Day to help celebrate the Shanghai Children's Medical Center's 10 Year Anniversary. The hospital honored children who had beaten leukemia and invited back those who had not received treatment in five years. While parents and caretakers were in educational seminars on caring for their children, the kids participated in T-Shirt Day. The event included clowns and magicians who visited the children on each floor.
If all this magic wasn't enough, and that’s is also why we also post the article a bit later, to also let you know that 21 Shanghai based MH volunteers ventured out to visit another 75 children at the Shanghai Medical Center on August 9th, giving out 300 toys and having a great time !
A big thank you to Baxter Healthcare who sponsored T-shirt day and all volunteers who made it possible!
During China's toughest winter babies'legs will stay warm
For 50 years China has not been challenged by a strong winter like the one in 2008. Whole infrastructures collapsed and people in the countryside face the coldest days they ever experienced. But thanks to the generous donation of Nicole Donnelly from BabyLegs Magic Hospital has ensured that over 1000 babies will be warm for the new year of the rat.
Nicole Donnelly, stay-at-home mom to Sara, started making BabyLegs to keep her dear daughter's legs warm whilst allowing for nakedly butt time. Well, it turns out that these leg warmers are great for crawling over all surfaces and since they are such a big success, Nicole wanted to share them with the babies in China.
The timing could not have been any better. Together with the help of Morning Sun Center of Hope, United Foundation of Chinese Orphans and Our Chinese Daughters Foundation we were able to get the BabyLegs of all different colours and patterns to the orphanages in the countryside, where babies and children live under most severe conditions, often no heating and insufficient medical supplies. Thank you for helping us to reach out to places far in the countryside.
But of course we also did not forget about our little friends in and around Beijing. Magic Hospital volunteers had the great pleasure to see many toddlers and children at the Blue Sky Healing Home, Beautiful Harbour Orphanage, Living Tree and Philip Hayden Foundation brighten up at the sight of the cuddly gift.
One of the many heart-warming incidences was a little boy who only has one leg. The boy was so happy and proud about his new gift and immediately put the legwarmer on his good leg.
Thank you to Nicole, Amy, Brean, Gary and Ted for helping us warm up the smallest ones all over the country!
With temperatures plummeting it can mean only one thing: Christmas has arrived and like every year Magic Hospital has sent a happy bunch of volunteers to accompany Santa and his band of merry musicians, this year even including a bag pipe player, and spread Christmas cheer to 1580 boys and girlsat 7 locations - Beijing Children Hospital, Beijing University Hospital, Green Garden and Guang Ai Migrant Schools, the New Life Centre in Shunyi and the foster home Living Tree in Hebei Province as well as Pudong Special School in Shanghai.
While the children at New Life Center welcomed Santa with a very happy and not so silent version of ‘Silent Night’ and the children at Living Tree foster home showed Santa how to do a somersault and recited poems, Green Gardens kids queued very nicely and some shy looks revealed that Santa - though a welcome guest - still had their respect. Not so the children at Guang Ai who surprised Santa with a heart-warming attack as they couldn’t resist checking whether the beard was real or not - costing the old man quite some energy to ensure that the crowd of curious children did not detect the pillow under his belt. Some beard testing also happened at Ertong, where the children clapped their hands and shouted ‘warmly welcome’. Upon our clown Liu Jinjun’s question how old they guessed Santa was the guesses varied from 8 to 100 years...
What all the children share is the moment of unbelieving surprise when Santa appears - as if it is almost too hard to believe for these children that Santa really found them.
Magic Hospital on behalf of 1580 children would like to thank all the volunteers who helped to spread the Yuletide glee among our little friends.
Santa’s bag would not have been that full if it were not for a very generous Santa helper named Jack Hung from Okktoys Company who is supporting our workshop generously with his yearly donation of gifts
Moreover we would like to thank the Daimler AG in Beijing, who by now has made it a tradition to provide Santa’s sleigh in form of vans and drivers to ensure that we can go to even the farthest places.
But most of all we have to thank all the fantastic children we have visited: Their laughter and joy will stay in our hearts and accompany us through the New Year.
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