Community Corner

Wayne Woman Behind 'Busy Boxes' for Pediatric Patients

Kids who receive care at Bryn Mawr Hospital can take home the shoebox-sized boxes filled with toys.

Wayne resident Jen McGowan said a year and a half ago, at her oldest daughter’s birthday party, she was trying to keep track of which friends had gifted what.

“My kids were just kind of tearing into the presents,” said McGowan, who has three kids under the age of 4. “It just didn’t seem like the way it was supposed to go. Guests had brought these beautiful gifts, and I just thought, ‘you know what—there has to be a better way.’ ”

She thought immediately of donating new trinkets and toys her children receive to , but she didn’t want to burden a busy pediatric unit with things they didn’t need, especially since she discourages her kids from playing with toys at doctors’ offices because of germs.

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From that, McGowan came up with the idea of creating "Busy Boxes": plastic shoebox-sized boxes with age-appropriate toys that pediatric patients at the hospital can take home with them.

The boxes are organized by age and by gender, for infants, toddlers, school-aged kids and teenagers, McGowan said. She said she’s found the best place to get items is at the Dollar Store, and they ask that participants in the program avoid toys that could be a choking hazard and that none of the toys promote violence. The boxes tend to cost between $4 and $10, McGowan added.

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The first drop-off to the hospital included 60 "Busy Boxes" at the end of June—donations in lieu of gifts at her daughter’s birthday party earlier that month, and McGowan has another 60 ready to go over to the Bryn Mawr pediatric unit, which has 17 beds.

“We can not thank Jen and her children enough for their generosity and thoughtfulness,” Kelly Ann Zazyczny, RN, BSN, Patient Care Manager of Pediatrics, said in a press release. “Our hospital thrives on community support from our neighbors like the McGowan family.”

McGowan said her kids have received excellent care at the Bryn Mawr Hospital emergency room, and said she hopes to have enough boxes to distribute to the 1,500 pediatric patients who receive in-patient care at the hospital every year. Eventually, McGowan would like to have enough boxes to distribute to all the pediatric ER patients.

“That’s usually where you show up running unexpectedly from the house, not grabbing anything to distract your kids,” McGowan said. “That would be a blessing if we were able to realize that goal.”

She said she’s gotten a great response from local individuals as well as from local schools and churches. 

“It’s been refreshing,” McGowan said. “My 4-year-old is totally on board with it… We had a few talks about it. Now whenever we go to Target or whenever she sees the shoeboxes coming into the house, it isn’t, ‘oh, is that for me?’ "

She said her daughter recently had some friends over and was showing them the "Busy Boxes" ready to go to the hospital.

“It was great to catch her in a moment of thinking about other people, which is the real goal in the end,” McGowan said.

For more information about The Toy Closet at Bryn Mawr Hospital, check out the group’s Facebook page, or contact Jen McGowan at jenmcgowan229@gmail.com or at 484-431-5093.


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