Bangor Parish Teens Bring miles to Hospitalized Children

When they heard about the Jared Box Project, 10 teens at St. Paul the Apostle Parish in Bangor jumped at the chance to make a difference in the lives of children at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

The Jared Box Project was started in 2001 by the children of Our Lady of Victory School in State College, Pennsylvania, to honor their classmate and friend, Jared, a brave little boy who battled cancer with courage and faith. Since then, more than 986,000 Jared Boxes have been delivered to over 400 hospitals across the United States. Boxes filled with the “gift of play” are given to young patients in emergency rooms, hospital rooms, surgical centers, and clinics. Each box contains small gifts, toys, games, crayons, coloring books, and fun activities selected for a specific age and gender.

The teens in Bangor quickly got to work, collecting, and filling boxes. Parish families then delivered Jared Boxes to grateful children and their parents as symbols of hope and love.

“We will use the Jared Boxes to help provide some fun distractions to kids in the hospital. We do our best to make the hospital feel a little warmer and more inviting, and little extras, like the Jared Boxes, bring smiles to our patients' faces. We'll use them on our Inpatient Pediatrics unit and in the emergency department. We are so thankful,” said Amy Baker, a child life specialist at Northern Lights Eastern Maine Medical Center.

Three Maine hospitals currently work with the Jared Box Project: Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland, Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, and York Hospital in York. To learn more or to participate in this important program, visit www.thejaredbox.org/find-a-hospital/?_hospital_state=maine.