DHOR held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Child Life Zone

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) – Leaders at VCU Children’s Hospital of Richmond held a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the soon-to-open Child Life Zone!

This latest addition to the Children’s Tower is said to provide a place where sick children and their families can feel normal again, as if they were not in a hospital.

Going to the hospital can be very scary, especially for children for whom hospital visits are routine. So, the new Children’s Life Zone will give children a chance to be children.

“It’s a place where a child undergoing chemotherapy can become a recording artist, a child recovering from surgery can relax in our sensory area, a teenager overcoming trauma can experience virtual reality, or a place where a parent can take a cute photo to document. how much their little one has overcome,” said CHoR Vice President Janice Roane.

The Child Life Zone at the Children’s Tower is a 3,400 square foot therapeutic play space. The space, not yet open to patients, was shown to the public Tuesday, showing exactly where the $2.6 million raised by the Children’s Hospital Foundation went: toward cutting-edge technologies that improve the emotional and social well-being of patients.

“Being able to escape the hospital, pretend they’re somewhere else, try something, be on a green screen, ride a roller coaster or fly a drone over the James River,” said Bethany Fisackerly, “The Child.” Life manager at CHoR.

Draw and color to unleash your child’s creativity using a 3D printer and Cricut machine. The Child Life Zone is a procedure-free zone where children and their families know they will not have to worry about illness.

“Families here will experience some of their darkest days,” said Lauren Moore, president and CEO of the Children’s Hospital Foundation. “This is the space where joy, light and life come and live.”

Carrie Johnston knows this personally; she said she had to take her son here – to VCU Children’s Hospital of Richmond – when he suffered a spleen injury.

“To have a place where we felt so loved and supported during a really difficult time in our lives,” explained Carrie Johnston of Estes Express Lines, a financial donor to The Child Zone.

Leaders hope the area will open to patients in the next few weeks.

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