All treats, no tricks at Fountain Valley pediatric ward’s Halloween celebration
Children are honest, so they’ll admit it: Being in a hospital is no fun, especially on a day like Halloween.
But if they can’t go out on Halloween because they’re sick or hurt, Halloween can come to them.
The pediatric ward at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital & Medical Center got a jolt of All Hallows’ Eve spirit Thursday morning with a trick-or-treat parade down one of its corridors. About 15 patients donned costumes and walked the hallway or rode in wheelchairs or wagons while toting blinking jack-o-lantern sacks or billowing pillowcases to collect holiday goodies from hospital staff.
Kailyn Olivan, 10, was going to go trick-or-treating as a skeleton in her Westminster neighborhood until a burst appendix last week changed her plans.
Though she was feeling better Thursday, she was still in the hospital recuperating from surgery. She got to wear her skeleton costume, though, and her brother Adam, 8, joined her in a matching rib-cage shirt. Kailyn quickly accumulated toys and trinkets, including stuffed animals like the Minnie Mouse she held on her lap. There were no candies or snacks, which may not work with medical dietary restrictions.
Adrienne Feilden hatched the idea of the trick-or-treat parade 13 years ago. As a child life specialist at the medical center, it’s her job to make young patients feel as comfortable as possible in the unfamiliar and often stressful environment.
“Obviously, they’re missing trick-or-treating and a Halloween at home, so it brings a piece of normalcy here,” said Feilden, dressed as Gidget the Pomeranian from “The Secret Life of Pets,” complete with a fuzzy white wig with perky ears and a pink collar with name tag.
In addition to cartoon critters and several skeletons — the radiology department would approve — there was a Spider-Man, a Batman, an Iron Man and at least one Darth Vader. Nala the therapy dog wore bunny ears.
A crew from the cardiac catheterization lab dressed as a set of dominoes, and administrators wore baseball uniforms. Fountain Valley firefighters and police officers joined in too, dressed as themselves.
The hospital-issued pillowcases were a logical accessory because the kids get many prizes — toys and books — that will quickly overflow the usual pumpkin buckets, Feilden said.
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