Kaitlin Hao
July 15, 2015, 10:00 A.M.
Art for Recovery Program at UCSF Hospital at Mission Bay
Cindy Perlis
Our initial proposal of what we wanted to do at UCSF is drastically different from what we are actually doing. Because we are under 18, we are not allowed to directly work with patients or enter patients’ rooms, which makes the direct service component of our project a little difficult. However, Cindy found us an alternative: the Heart project and the Firefly Project. For the Firefly project, I’m writing a pen pal letter once a month to a cancer patient named Donna. For the Heart project, we are sewing little felt hearts to hand out to patients, patients’ family members, and staff members. As we sit in the hospital waiting areas and sew hearts for six hours, we catch glimpses of patients, some of them being pushed in wheelchairs or being supported by a nurse as they move slowly down the halls. I feel guilty that I’m not allowed to go up and talk to them or assist them in any way, but at the same time, I wouldn’t have any idea what to say. I constantly wonder what patients would want to talk about. Donna loves to talk about her illness, but I wonder whether that’s a sore topic for other patients. Although I don’t feel like I’m being helpful by sewing these hearts, Cindy told us that these hearts have started a sort of trend! Patients have started sewing them for other patients or for their own family members, so in a way, Sophia and I have started a chain reaction of showing appreciation for someone. I never realized that such a small activity could create such a large impact on a community.
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