Kids Get Holiday Cheer at Hasbro’s Miracle Wrap Mall
Friday, December 23, 2011
It's a sweet bit of holiday shopping, indeed.
For the 8th year, pediatric patients at Hasbro Children's Hospital got to spend some festive hours shopping for presents at the Miracle Wraps Mall. Created by Bethanie Malone in 2003, the Miracle Mall is for kids in the inpatient units at Hasbro to shop for their loved ones for the holidays.
Malone spent her first Christmas at Hasbro Children’s Hospital that year, when she was 16 years old. She had just been diagnosed with leukemia and couldn’t leave the hospital to buy gifts for her parents, siblings, or young son, Bryan. Bethanie was determined that by the next holiday season, children at Hasbro Children’s Hospital would not miss out on the experience of buying gifts for those they love. If children could not go to the mall, Bethanie would make sure the mall came to them.
A mini-mall right in the hospital
Her project was called Miracle Wraps Mall, a mini-mall set up in the hospital, complete with a bank, store, gift-wrapping station and food court. Today, the tradition of Miracle Wraps Mall continues to delight the patients of Hasbro Children’s Hospital.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTPatients use play money to select gifts for family members, visit the mall wrapping station and may even stop by the “food court” for a snack. A mobile cart will also bring a shopping selection to patients who are unable to leave their hospital rooms.
This year, 35 young shoppers hit the Miracle Mall either on their own or were able to shop bedside. Twenty more patients under the age of 3 didn't shop at the Mall, but received candy bags as a special gift. Those bags, as well as the food in the Mall's "food court", were donated by the Rhode Island Hospital Guild.
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