We all remember Halloween as kids. Picking out your costumes to embody your true form, talking to you friends as you made your way from house to house, hoping that there would be a nice face and a Kit Kat awaiting you when you knocked. Shedding layers of your costume as the night went on, so you ended up looking like…something while you suffered the well-worth-it stomachache from too much candy. While this spooky season looked different for all of us, DanceBlue’s Family Relations Committee was not going to let Halloween pass by without a celebration of the same caliber with the clinic kids and their families.
This year, the Family Relations Committee shook things up to plan a virtual DanceBoo celebration! On November 1, DanceBoo was hosted via Zoom and allowed for the kids to interact with one another in a socially distant yet festive celebration. With costumes in tow and Zoom backgrounds designed by our incredible graphic designers to give the party a spectacular spooky feel, these kiddos were able to have a Halloween celebration that was sweeter than each ounce of trick-or-treat chocolate.
Gillian Senter, Family Events Coordinator, was thrilled to be able to celebrate with the kids! “This year, of course, is very different so we had to adapt DanceBoo to a virtual platform. All of committee worked so hard to come up with ideas to make the kids so special! We picked out fun Halloween crafts and sent the kids a Halloween box with the crafts and goodies before DanceBoo. We did those crafts during DanceBoo and we also played a few games including Freeze dance and Halloween charades! One of my favorite parts of DanceBoo was seeing the kids dressed up in their costumes! They each took turns and showed off their costume and then they were awarded superlatives! It made my heart so happy seeing their smiling faces again. Seeing how happy the kiddos are is truly life changing. They were having such a great time that one of the sweet kiddos kept on saying “not yet!” when his mom was trying to leave the zoom when DanceBoo was over.” This sweet sentiment is summarized in one sentence by Senter: “I wish I could have stayed on [Zoom] all day!
The purpose of family events, as described by Senter, is to make the kids and families in the clinic feel special regardless of circumstances, and virtual DanceBoo was just the celebration that each kid has been waiting for all year. In addition to this special feeling, DanceBlue also got spooky with the clinic teens in an event planned by Teen Events Coordinator Kaylee Birlingmair. Overall, DanceBlue wanted to treat the kids and families to a special Halloween, but I think we all tricked, because the kids gave us a treat by being the most delightful and positive spirits, even in an abnormal Halloween season.
If your heart is feeling happy from the sugar rush or from the sweet smiling faces, email [email protected] to learn more information about Family Relations and find out how you can show support for the kids in this abnormal year!
