New Kiosk Installed at MSHA Children's Hospital
In April, Hands On! installed a kiosk, sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Tom and Margery Raymond, in the Children’s playroom at the Johnson City Medical Center. The kiosk features several educational tools to help enhance motor skills and spatial development.
Ribbon cutting opens Hands On! kiosk at The Children’s Hospital at JCMC
The benevolence of a community supporter, the creativity of an insightful artist and the warm reception to new ideas to benefit patients in The Children’s Hospital at Johnson City Medical Center (JCMC) have combined to create a unique corner in the hospital’s playroom.
Tom Raymond, a former board member at Hands On! Regional Museum in Johnson City, brought the funding along with his idea to Trish Patterson, Executive Director of Hands On, that included collaboration of The Children’s Hospital at JCMC with Hands On in creating an educational kiosk for use in the hospital’s playroom. Patterson called Joanna Swinehart, Children’s Hospital Communications and Outreach Coordinator, to tell her that a creative project was being developed and asked if The Children’s Hospital at JCMC would be interested.
“We jumped at the chance,” Swinehart said. “Anytime we can bring something wonderful to our patients, we’re receptive.” Franci Sloan, Exhibits and Outreach Coordinator at Hands On, put her art background to good use in creating the kiosk. It took about eight months from research time, through design time, installation of the television and DVD player and painting at the woodshop at Hands On to set up at The Children’s Hospital at JCMC.
“Tom had the vision for an educational television and manipulations that would be cheerful and fun,” Sloan said. These included educational tools for children’s motor skills development such as counting with beads; an art element, which has been turned into a heat-sensitive drawing board on the kiosk; a fun mirror that distorts image, creating a way for patients looking into it to recognize spatial development. “It automatically puts smiles on the faces of these patients,” Sloan added.
With Patterson’s blessing, the funding from Raymond and delight expressed to Hands On by the Mountain States Foundation, which accepted the kiosk on behalf of The Children’s Hospital at JCMC, the ribbon was cut for the kiosk on Tuesday. Sloan said patients have already put the technical toy to good use. Karen Clark, Director of Development for the Foundation, said, “They come in and have a blast.”
Sloan said other plans are in the works for bringing the creativity of Hands On to the community. “Folks who can’t come to the museum will be treated to Museum in a Box. We are developing that project that will include heart health and hand washing.” She added, “I’m researching and recommending items now.” Swinehart said the Museum in a Box should be available in the fall for classrooms, home-schooled families, hospital patients and others who cannot travel to the downtown Johnson City museum. “It will make the museum more portable,” Sloan added.