East High School offers ‘Buddy Bags' to children in the hospital

Yahoo

01-03-2025

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — A local high school's student council is helping bring kids in the hospital some relief and comfort.
'Buddy Bags are supposed to simulate what Child Life specialists do in hospitals,' Sioux City East High School sophomore and student council member Maggie Taylor said. 'The idea is there's fidget toys, some coloring pages and stuff like that, just so if they're in the hospital for long-term care and they're like bored or they're getting overwhelmed, it's some way that it can help them calm down.'
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The idea of the 'Buddy Bags' came from Taylor last year, as she herself shares the same experience with childcare.
'I do have a genetic disorder called Cowden syndrome, and that means I have a lot of doctor's appointments in Sanford Medical and Mayo Clinic, and they both have great Child Life programs, and so local hospitals really don't have anything like that,' she said. 'So we thought these bags would be a great way to bring that into the hospital.'
After hearing about Taylor's idea, the student council agreed to start the project. However, they ran into some problems at first.
'We struggled a lot our first year making them because we just didn't know what the right things to do were,' Taylor said. 'But we figured out that we really have to keep it sanitary, especially since they're in the hospital, so we started using gloves and if any of us were just feeling a little sick, because I know last time we made them he was sick and we didn't want him to cough all over them and infect them'
The Buddy Bag project has received a lot of positive feedback from hospital staff.
'They love having them,' Taylor said. 'They've been handing them out in the ER, so when children come in with families or they're in the ER, specifically giving it to them just as something quick. We went to talk to them last semester. When we gave [the Buddy Bags] to them, they were really interested and hopeful to have more.'
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So far, the student council's project focuses on elementary school-aged children. However, Taylor hopes to expand this program to all ages.
'We're trying to look into doing it for each age group, so having like little kids' bags for toddlers and then starting with teenagers and stuff like that,' Taylor said. 'But we're still trying to figure out ways to make that plausible and figure out how that would work.'
East High School is relying on donations for this project. You can visit the student council's to learn more.
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