Holiday season can be great time to give back to community

There are many ways to help patients & families wherever Sanford Health serves

Holiday season can be great time to give back to community

There are so many ways to get that rewarding feeling by giving to Sanford Health this season.

A gift to Sanford can provide hope, healing, and even a full Christmas for a family spending it in the Sanford Children’s Hospital.

Ways to give

A Gift for Good: “Give for Good” through the Sanford Health Foundation. A monetary donation can literally change lives. Donors can decide where their gift will support, whether it’s Children’s, Cancer, or the Edith Sanford Breast Initiative. The best part is that you can give knowing 100% of your donation will stay local. Depending on what region you’re in, you can select which community you want to support whether that’s Sioux Falls, Bismarck, Fargo, or Bemidji. Donations can be made online or a check can be sent to the Sanford Health Foundation in any region.

Child Life: A way to get the family involved in giving back is going out shopping to get some items for the Child Life team. The Child Life Specialists have come up with a list of items that are needed to help brighten the lives of our pediatric patients and bring them some comfort. All donations must be new and in original packaging. The team would appreciate items like gift cards, popular character toys, and books. Once again, each region has different needs, so you can shop specific to your region. Lists for Bismarck, Fargo, and Sioux Falls can be found online.

Child’s Voice: A center only in Sioux Falls is also looking for donations. Child’s Voice is a nationally accredited Child Advocacy Center that provides medical evaluations for children who may be victims of abuse and neglect. Child’s Voice serves over 1,400 children every year. The center is looking for donations of tie blankets, backpacks, 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner bottles, baby soap, bar soap, women’s deodorant, coloring books, and journals. Clothing items are also needed. Leggings in black or grey and plain short or long sleeve shirts are needed in girls’ sizes as small as 3T and in women’s sizes S-XL. Sweatpants in black or grey and plain short or long sleeve shirts are needed for boys as small as 3T and men’s sizes S-XL. All donations need to be new items. Donations can be dropped off at CHILD Services at 5015 S. Western Ave., Suite 120 in Sioux Falls.

Wellness Pantry: In the Fargo region, Sanford Children’s Southwest Clinic has a wellness pantry that is stocked with things like food and hygiene products. Doctors will talk with patients about their ability to feed themselves and their children, and if their answers suggest they need help, they are given enough food to get them through one to two days. Then, they’re given information on what’s available in the community to help them on a longer-term basis. Most of the pantry is stocked through the Great Plains Food Bank. But people can help by donating to the Sanford Health Foundation and specifying that it be used for the wellness pantry. If people want to donate items directly to the clinic, they need to call the clinic at 701-234-3620.

Sanford Health staff gives back

Children’s Inn: Several Sanford Health employees have also been inspired to give back to the communities they serve this holiday season. A second-year pediatric resident, Dr. Ariane Moffett, collected brand new socks for the Children’s Inn, a non-profit in Sioux Falls that she fell in love with after learning about their mission. She had donation bins in the break rooms of every floor of the Sanford Children’s Hospital, the Specialty Clinic, and the Sanford Clinic at 69th Street & Louise Avenue to collect socks.

Military servicemembers: A clinical staff scientist with Sanford Imagenetics, Katherine Moodie, organized a drive to give back to our U.S. military members. Moodie asked her coworkers at Sanford Medical Genetics Laboratory at Imagenetics to donate items to fill boxes for a military group in Qatar. Her goal was to fill 52 boxes, but with the donations from her coworkers, she was able to fill 63. They were sent out a couple of weeks before Christmas.

Backpack program: Staff at Sanford Sheldon Medical Center in Iowa have adopted a local organization to donate to this holiday season. They are gathering items for the Sheldon Backpack Program. This program makes sure kids don’t go hungry over the weekend when they don’t have school meals to count on. Kids receive a backpack full of food to keep them full Saturday and Sunday. Since kids are out of school for the extended holiday break, the backpack program is in need of additional food items. Sanford staff is stepping up to provide items like boxes of Pop Tarts and granola bars, cans of soup, peanut butter, jelly, fruit cups and popcorn.

Learn more

Posted In Bemidji, Bismarck, Children's, Community, Fargo, Foundation, Sheldon, Sioux Falls