Community Corner
Mineola Youths Help Ailing Children Smile
Mineola children write thoughtful letters to chronically ill children.
The Make a Child Smile Volunteer Organization has made its way to the . Designed to help children that were diagnosed with chronic diseases, the volunteer organization’s goal is to literally make them smile. In each program, children are able to write letters to any amount of chronically ill children they want in order to make them feel better.
Youth Services Librarian Vivian Yuan started the Make a Child Smile Program a few weeks ago, along with several other volunteering programs.
“In the library, we are limited to what we can do. So writing letters could be easily accommodated,” she said adding “there are children who feel like they want to change the world and this is one small step into that direction.”
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This easy to do and thoughtful program could go a long way for the kid who writes the letters just as well as the kid who receives them.
Each of the children were given a brief bio of an ill child and was able to pick whom to write. Although there were only three children who attended the event, each wrote more than one letter to a child in need.
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Ingrid Laurice encouraged her son Ronald, 13, to go to the program because she thinks that attending volunteer programs, such as this one, helps build character. “I think that especially at this age, kids learn how to live in the future,” she said.
Ronald wrote several letters, adding a little humor to them: “telling them funny jokes make them (the kids) smile because when you tell a funny joke, usually most people smile,” he said.
Hannah Hoyt chose to write about the things she had in common with the kids because “it would make them feel better because they’re like everyone else in some ways,” she said.
“It makes me feel proud to make other kids happy,” Nada Al-Okla, 10, said, sticking happy face stickers to one of the few letters she was sending out. “I’m happy to know that I’m making them smile.”
Each of the children also received a volunteer certificate at the conclusion of the program, signifying the service hours they earned for attending.
