Volunteers from UnitedHealth Group created arts and crafts yesterday for patients at Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach. The gifts are intended to help provide relief from the stress and monotony of treatment for hospitalized children. About 30 volunteers created 450 arts and crafts kits, which included journals and materials for pediatric patients to decorate their own trophies and medals. The donation was part of Project Sunshine, which provides programs that educate and entertain children facing medical challenges.

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Volunteers from UnitedHealth Group created 450 arts and crafts kits Monday, March 22, for patients a ...

Volunteers from UnitedHealth Group created 450 arts and crafts kits Monday, March 22, for patients at Miller Children's & Women's Hospital Long Beach. The donation was part of Project Sunshine, which provides programs that educate and entertain children facing medical challenges (Photo: Caitlin Moses).

Since 2010, nearly 26,000 UnitedHealth Group volunteers have created over 86,000 arts and crafts kits and more than 29,000 Sunny Grams for pediatric patients across the country in partnership with Project Sunshine.

About Project Sunshine

Project Sunshine (www.projectsunshine.org) is a non-profit organization that provides free educational, recreational, and social programs to children facing medical challenges and their families. Project Sunshine recruits, trains, and coordinates a dynamic and dedicated corps of over 15,000 volunteers to bring programming – recreational (arts), educational (tutoring and mentoring) and social service (HIV and nutritional counseling) – to 100,000 children facing medical challenges and their families in 175 cities across the United States and in four international locations: Canada, China, Israel and Kenya. Volunteers selflessly donate their time to create program materials and deliver programs. Working onsite, volunteers relieve the anxiety of the young patients and in a context of fun and play, foster in them the courage and coping skills necessary to confront procedures that lie ahead. Project Sunshine volunteers spread sunshine, restoring a crucial sense of normalcy to the pediatric healthcare environment.

About UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) is a diversified health and well-being company dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and helping make the health system work better for everyone. UnitedHealth Group offers a broad spectrum of products and services through two distinct platforms: UnitedHealthcare, which provides health care coverage and benefits services; and Optum, which provides information and technology-enabled health services. For more information, visit UnitedHealth Group at www.unitedhealthgroup.com or follow @UnitedHealthGrp on Twitter.

Child Life Program at Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach

The award-winning Child Life Program at Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach was developed to help make the hospital experience a more positive one for children of all ages by offering developmental, educational and emotional support, because kids need more than medicine to get well. Child Life Specialists plan individualized and group programs that help children cope with hospitalization in every area of the hospital including inpatient, outpatient, and the Emergency Department, and promote the continuity of normal, daily childhood activities. Child Life Specialist use medical play, activity playrooms, art therapy and pet therapy to help lessen anxieties and fears in kids and teens. Visit MillerChildrens.org/ChildLife, like us on Facebook.com/MillerChildrensHospital, follow us on Twitter @MillerChildrens and on Instagram @MillerChildrens.

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