Program Helps Young Cancer Survivor's Classmates Understand Illness
Last year, more than 100 young patients benefited from a school re-entry program provided by Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. Julia Kauth, a 7-year-old who is recovering from kidney cancer, was one of these patients. After having a difficult time her first few days back at school, Julia and her family enlisted the help of Vicky Neis, a child life specialist at Children's. Neis paid a visit to Julia's classroom and helped to explain her illness, clarifying misconceptions about the cause and whether it was contagious.  "They told everyone what I was going to be doing, and it happens to other kids," Julia says.  "They [my classmates] don't ask questions about me anymore, and they don't stare at me."

The school re-entry program is provided through a partnership with Great Clips.

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New Haven Register * Sandi Kahn Shelton * July 10, 2012

Connecticut Artisan Turns Wood Into Wonder For Hospitalized Children
Robert Wilkins, founder of the nonprofit organization Dances With Wood, is affectionately known as "Woody" by many of the children he has worked with over the years. Since 1995, Wilkins has been creating pre-fabricated woodworking kits for children in the hospital. Wilkins has created a variety of projects ranging in complexity-from a simple race cars to elaborate pirate ships-based on how long a child will be in the hospital. Each project comes with sanded pieces with rounded edges that are easily assembled by a child in a hospital bed. "The secret to what I do is letting the kids do it themselves," says Wilkins. "When they're allowed autonomy, it displaces the fear, anxiety and depression they feel." Wilkins himself was inspired to begin woodworking when he was only 6 years old and coping with a serious illness. "A lot of creative things kids do are gentle and soft," he says. "But when you have to physically grip the tools and engage, when you pound with the mallet, it raises up the life force that every cell in your body is listening for. It gives you endurance."

According to CLC member Ellen Good, manager of the Child Life Department at Yale-New Haven's Children's Hospital, the projects, "Invoke a child's imagination... A child building the pirate ship is on a journey. They talk about where the ship could take them, who would be the captain and the crew. Woody is a kid at heart, and he knows what kids need."
Wilkins has worked in a variety of professions over the last few decades, including teaching, cabinetmaking, and business, but he began to find his true calling working at a mental health residential home, and later in hospice care and with Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. After leaving Hole in the Wall, he started his own woodworking business in his garage, which has since grown to a studio with five part-time employees who assemble the kits. Dances With Wood serves 20 children's hospitals, providing woodworking kits to young patients and their families free of charge.

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