This past January, I participated in Dec My Room, a charity designed to brighten up the lives of long-term hospitalized children by decorating their sterile, white rooms with their wildest dreams. My team was assigned a six-year old girl who was obsessed with Frozen. Her name was La’Miyah.
My team was assigned a six-year old girl who was obsessed with Frozen. Her name was La’Miyah.
The preparation for La’Miyah’s room wasn’t hard – a separate team at Miller shopped specifically for her favorite colors and interests. Many a Frozen bedspread and pillow was bought. All my team had to do was go in and decorate well, and hoped that La’Miyah liked it all. Easy, right?
Early Friday morning, my fellow coworkers and I hauled our large tub of goodies into the hospital and prepared ourselves mentally. Who knew what state La’Miyah would be in? Would she like her decorations? Would she be excited? Nervous? Weirded out?
We soon figured out the answers to all of those questions when we were greeted with a shrill scream of excitement as soon as we entered the room. The next half hour was filled with pure joy as we pulled out new blankets, stickers, make up, and, of course, all the Frozen merchandise you can imagine. By the end of it all, she was dressed up in an Elsa gown of her own, singing “Let it go” into a Frozen-themed microphone with all of us chiming in to sing the chorus with her. It was a magical moment, and her room was transformed. Gone was the stark white, disinfectant-smelling hospital room – it was now a a Frozen-inspired wonderland, a little piece of home.
A couple group hugs later, we found out that La’Miyah was due to leave the hospital in about a week. We knew she’d enjoy her new decorations for a long time to come – after all, they were all hers now, and she could bring them home. While my coworkers and I brought home a priceless experience that we would never forget.
