Caitlin's Smiles - Giving sick children laughs, hopes and smiles.

A Note From Cheryl

October brought some chills and certainly a lot of thrills as thousands of people visited our Saturday Smiles event sponsored by PSECU at Harrisburg Mall. Throughout October, over 6,500 cans of Play-Doh were collected, and donations are still being dropped off! Last year, we distributed over 12,000 Play-Doh cans in our Bags of Smiles™ to hospitalized children throughout the region, and thanks to the contributions from Saturday Smiles we are over halfway to our goal for next year.

“Caitllin’s October Smiles,” an original painting donated by local artist D’Las, raised over $500 and

was won by Sue Wilbur. A beautiful Starbucks gift basket was won by Stacey Speraw. In addition, over 1,000 bags and cards were decorated by children and their families.

One hundred fourteen children entered our Facebook coloring contest. Congratulations to our winners, Kirsten & Caitlin, 13 and 14, Harrisburg (Week 4), Annie, 3, Harrisburg (Week 4) and Chloe, 6 1/2, Camp Hill (Week 2). Check out our Facebook page to see the great entries!

A huge thanks to the hundreds of Caitlin’s Smiles volunteers who made this event possible – we

appreciate all of your hard work throughout the month and couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks to our partners, PSECU and Harrisburg Mall, for making this possible, as well as Weis, The Hershey Company, Highmark, Wendy’s/Valenti Management and LB Smith Ford Lincoln Mercury for your generous donations.

As many of the leaves have fallen and the weather is getting frostier, the holiday season is right around the corner and Caitlin’s Smiles is getting ready. Our annual holiday party is always held in November, and we’ve extended invitations to hospitals around the region. The party is open to families with children battling life-threatening and chronic illnesses. Our volunteers staff craft tables so the children can make presents such as fleece hats, stacking candles, sand necklaces and holiday plates for their families. A fantastic breakfast buffet is provided by JDK Catering and the party finishes with a surprise visit from Santa. Last year, we had patients attend from Penn State Children’s Hospital, Shriner's Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the National Institute of Health, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Janet Weis Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

I’ve included a few of my favorite photos from parties over the years. Nothing puts you more in the holiday spirit than being able to help children and provide them with an opportunity to makes gifts for their families.

Keep your eyes open for our annual appeal in the mail over the next few weeks to see how you can help support Caitlin's Smiles.

Upcoming Events

November and December Book drive at the Harrisburg and Reading Borders bookstores and at the Springfield Mall Borders Express. Please stop by and donate a book to Caitlin’s Smiles! Borders does a great job helping us provide books to children in our hospitals!

Holiday arts and crafts drive with Wolf Furniture stores in Harrisburg, Lancaster, Mechanicsburg and York – details to be announced.

Thank Yous For This Month
Hello everyone from Caitlin’s Smiles,
We received your wonderful arts and crafts bags yesterday. They came to us with great excitement and the feeling that we want to give them to the children immediately. The pediatric patients just LOVE them and the bags really do bring HUGE smiles. Thank you for sharing Caitlin’s Smiles with us.
- Karen Kelly, Nurse Manager, Milford Memorial Hospital, Delaware

To All at Caitlin’s Smiles,
Thank you VERY much for sending the box of crafts to us at Women’s and Children’s in Lafayette, LA. I’ve already brought some to patients all over the hospital. One girl even squealed in excitement! Thank you for making many of our patients’ lives a little brighter!
- Janie Eldridge, Child Life Specialist, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Lafayette, Louisiana