Living Their Cosmic Dreams at the Stanford Children’s Prom

Anticipation stuffed the air in Ren Vargas’s hospital room. Make-up palettes lined the medical desk, and a purple wig hung within the nook of the room. Ren was preparing for the Stanford Drugs Kids’s Well being Cosmic Desires Promenade at Lucile Packard Kids’s Hospital Stanford.

“I’m actually excited as a result of I’ve all the time wished to go to promenade,” the 13-year-old mentioned. “I don’t know why, nevertheless it’s all the time one thing I wished to do.”

Ren has been hospitalized for the final 283 days following their stem cell transplant. When their mother, Amanda, heard in regards to the Stanford Kids’s promenade she wasn’t positive if Ren would wish to go. However Ren thought it sounded enjoyable, particularly the galaxy theme.

“For the previous couple of years, there hasn’t been so much to look ahead to,” Amanda mentioned. “It’s so cool to see Ren enthusiastic about one thing.”

The Child Life and Creative Arts staff, together with hospital employees and volunteers, remodeled the hospital’s Dunlevie Backyard and Harvest Café into outer area, so tweens and teenagers like Ren can expertise a highschool custom regardless of being hospitalized. This yr, the Princess Mission group donated night attire to make sure all younger sufferers could make recollections that can final a lifetime.

For some sufferers, like Anayeli Barajas, it’s an opportunity for her to reconnect together with her buddies from Packard Kids’s, but in addition a time to rejoice a milestone.

“Final yr’s promenade was the final day of her inpatient chemo, so it was a great send-off,” mentioned Margarita Barajas, Anayeli’s mother.

Sufferers confirmed up of their absolute best, donning robes and good-looking fits to indicate off their strikes on the dance flooring. The star-studded evening featured enjoyable video games with prizes, a customized jewellery bar, portrait artists, and a particular efficiency from the Bay Space dance group, Str8jacket. Sufferers and their friends had been capable of document their evening with a cease on the photograph sales space to commemorate the particular evening.

Occasions like promenade assist kids have a way of normalcy whereas present process medical remedy. This may have a constructive impact on their outlook and supply a welcome distraction as they rejoice rites of passage.

The ‘Cosmic Desires’ promenade was made attainable by the contributions of beneficiant volunteers and donors, together with the Ambassadors for LPCH, Roth Auxiliary, Greater Calling Concessions, Kendra Scott, Dippin’ Dots, and Slime Kitchen.