Everyone loves to make wishes….they’re personal and they always inspire hope for “what’s possible.” Wishes are also powerful…collectively expressed, they can represent the dreams of an entire community. That’s why we’ve created “The Columbus Wishing Tree Project” as part of our grand opening celebrations for the new campus.
The idea started from a very personal place – Inside the new hospital is our “Clubhouse” – a place for play and support just for siblings of our hospitalized patients. Here, our Child Life Specialists help brothers and sisters cope with their fears and stress. The new Clubhouse (set to open later this year) contains a whimsical “wishing tree.” Painted bright green, with clear acrylic leaves, children use markers to write down their wishes and hang them on the tree. Each wish represents an individual child. Together, the wishes represent every brother and sister who just wants to see their sibling get better, or come home, or return to play. It will be a very powerful place of hope and optimism as the tree fills.
We wanted to bring this idea of wishing trees (which actually date back to ancient china) out into the community so everyone could share their collective wishes for the new hospital and the children in our lives – and the idea for “The Wishing Tree Project” was born.
How can you participate? The Wishing Tree Project begins today and will continue through the hospital dedication ceremony on June 11th. We have potted beautiful live, Snow Cherry trees that will be traveling throughout the community to major events and venues. You can find the trees this weekend at the Arts Festival and the Memorial Tournament. Beginning on June 4th the trees will travel to community sites including COSI, Columbus Metropolitan Library and the Lobby of Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Click here for a complete listing of locations. We’ve supplied wish tags for each tree. You write your wish and hang it on the tree – your wish can be for anything – for yourself, your children, all children. I’ve already read some of the wishes and many are magical!
The trees will return to Children’s for our weekend grand opening activities and Monday, June 11th dedication ceremony. I hope you can join us for Community Celebration Day on June 10th from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Share your wish, tour the hospital and enjoy all the great activities we have planned!
After the dedication we will collect all the wishes and feature many of them on a special Wishing Tree website we have created. If you can’t make it to one of the live events please visit the site to share your wish on our “Virtual Wishing Tree” . Every butterfly on the tree represents a wish and you can also post videos and personalize your wish with a photo.
Special thanks to Mayor Coleman and the 200Columbus Bicentennial Planning Committee. They will be hosting a special 200Columbus wishing tree. All wishes from this designated tree, on display next week in city hall and at the June 10th Community Celebration Day, will be collected and submitted for inclusion in the city’s Bicentennial Time Capsule. Your wish could be part of city history.
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