By Dana Klosner
(click on photos to enlarge)
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Commack High School alumni Samantha Sclafani 19, Ashley Ferraro, 18 and Matt Rafanelli, 19, have combined their love of fantasy, musical theater and kids to create “Characters with a Cause,” a volunteer group that brings the joy of fairy tales to hospitalized children and fundraisers throughout Long Island and the New York area.
The group dons the costumes inspired by Disney, popular fairy tales, superheroes and pirates and will go to the hospital rooms of sick children, some terminally ill and bring gifts, like coloring books, crayons and nail polish, just to see the smiles on their faces.
“We love fairy tale stories and the joy that brings,” said Sclafani who did all the high school musicals with Ferraro and Rafanelli. “We thought, ‘How cool would it be to bring the joy of fairy tales to hospitals?’ Children in hospitals can’t go to theme parks to meet their favorite characters, so we wanted to bring their favorite characters to them. In addition to that, we get donations from loved ones and supporters and the hospitals provide us with a wish list of what the children want. Then we personally give the presents to the kids. We want to promote smiles, hope and healing through fairy tale characters.”
The group hand makes their costumes. They make sure they are soft, not fragile or frilly and nothing can fall off in the hospital.
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“We have fun making the costumes and we alter our costumes based on hospital dress code,” Sclafani said. “When we start from scratch it can take up to two weeks to complete a costume, so these things have to be booked months in advance.”
The group has been together and been involved in fundraisers doing “meet and greets” with kids for about a year now. They appeared at a fundraiser for Contractors for Kids. They will be visiting hospitals for the first time on August 19 and 20. The group has been contracted to perform at Stony Brook Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital.
“They came to me with awareness that the needs of sick children are different than those of well children,” said Joan Alpers, Child Life Specialist at Good Samaritan Hospital. “Sick children are naturally frightened by the hospital setting. They (Characters with a Cause) were aware that hospitalized children don’t feel well and they need to be reassured and soothed as opposed to entertained.”
“There’s something about having a child’s favorite character come through,” said Mike Attard, Child Life Specialist at Stony Brook Hospital. “It puts a sparkle in their eyes.”
Sclafani is hoping the visits at these two hospitals are the start of something bigger.
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“We really want to spread the joy over the holidays and bring gifts to the children that they possibly wouldn’t get due to medical bills,” she said. “We don’t want them to suffer because of their illness. We want to strive to take the worry off parents around the holidays. We want the kids and their parents to see that there are people out there who really care about them. We want to take away that sickness for a moment. We want them to forget about their struggle and give them a reason to smile. We want them to feel this is their special day – they are the special guest and we’re so excited to meet them.”
“We want to give a big thank you to all who have supported us,” Sclafani said.
They have supported and inspired us to keep spreading smiles.”
This is a volunteer organization. They are not a non-profit foundation so donations are not tax deductible. If you are interested in donating go to www.youcaring.com/characterswithacause.