Nine-year-old Ben Guzik remembers when he was in the hospital last year after he broke his left arm.
It wasn’t fun, he said, but when hospital staff offered him colored pencils and paper to do some drawing, his spirits lifted.
“When I got to do art I was happy because it took my mind off it,” Ben said.
Now Ben and other students at Glenoaks Elementary School are helping to bring art supplies to hospitalized children through an art supply drive organized by the school’s PTA.
Over the last two weeks, Glenoaks students have amassed materials like finger paints, markers, crayons, yarn and scissors to donate to the art and music therapy program at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.
The new art supplies will benefit The Mark Taper & Johnny Mercer Artists Program at the hospital.
Through this program, children who are hospitalized with serious conditions work with artists and musicians to help work through the emotional and psychological effects of their conditions, as well as to develop artistic skills and sensibilities, hospital officials said.
Last year, the outreach committee of the school’s PTA organized a book drive to benefit the hospital. This year, students have been encouraged to donate new art and music supplies for the hospital, said Jennifer Palacios, a parent who heads that committee.
The parents on the committee thought the program was worthwhile, Palacios said, and they wanted to organize an effort that would teach children the importance of giving back.
“It’s basically teaching children that it’s always good to give,” Palacios said. “Many kids, they just grow up being a little bit selfish.”
In Barbara Grossman’s fourth-grade class, a handful of students brought in art materials over the last two weeks.
“It’s important because the kids who are in the hospital are less fortunate,” said Julia Smith, 9, who brought in colored markers. “It might make them have something to do and express their feelings.”
The drive was one the students could relate to, because they were giving to other children, Grossman said.
“The children really understand how art makes them feel better, so they know what it means when they’re sick to do art,” she said.
Several students in Grossman’s class said they had been to the hospital before, either as patients or visitors.
Sophia Schmerling, 9, said doing art projects would probably help break the monotony that hospital patients feel.
“It’s sort of boring,” Sophia said.
“You just have to watch TV and lay in that uncomfortable bed.”
Parents will deliver the art supplies to the hospital in late February, Palacios said.
