Service Project: Busy Bags for the Hospital

As I mentioned in a previous post, we have chosen the scripture verse in Joshua "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord" to be our family motto. Loving and serving others is something that is really important that we instill into our children and our family. So, we introduced this to our family and no doubt we will introduce it again and again as our kids are a little older. Our almost 4 year old definitely understands though and she was really excited about this project. We introduced our family motto and had it printed and put in a place where we could all see it and be reminded daily.

For a family night we assembled 20 busy kits for the hospital. Busy bags for the hospital are inexpensive and easy for kids to do, especially on an assembly line. Busy bags help kids that are in the ER or waiting for procedures at that hospital by giving them something to do to pass the time.The kits do not need to be anything extravagant. We simply printed coloring pages from online, stapled 4 prints together and bagged and attached a few crayons. Even our almost 2 year old was able to help. 

I also got lucky while looking for Christmas stocking stuffers at Michael's Craft Store and found these activity packs that have a little coloring book, markers and stickers all included. I got a few for my girls and they rung up at $.25. After getting back home I knew I needed to go back and get more for this project for that price. When I went back there were only a few left, but I found the exact same in another area, but they were marked $2.00. Long story short, $2.00 was the correct price, but since there were a few ringing up at 25 cents, they honored that price and I got 40 of them!

We took all 60 of our activity bags to the hospital. It was difficult for our little ones to understand why they could not give them to the kids themselves, but I think it is something they will remember. They knew the had just done a good thing.

Most hospitals should have a volunteer page that will link you to a donations page with more information on items they are looking for and how to get it to them.