Emily Wen: with 91.9 KVCR, I'm Emily Wen. Did you know that there are about 500 student organizations at UC Riverside? Some of these are culture clubs, hobby clubs, and academic clubs, or more meaningful voluntary organizations. Today, I'm here with the pediatric cancer club A Friend In Me, Riverside chapter.
Sarah Fan: Hi, I'm Sarah Fan, and I'm the education chair for the A Friend In Me chapter in University of California, Riverside. And what I do as an education chair is that I manage all the portions that are dedicated to basically educating our general members. How I do so is through patient interaction workshops and then through guest speaker events.
Emily Wen: The main mission of A Friend In Me is to bring comfort and a sense of normalcy to pediatric cancer patients during their treatment.
Sarah Fan: Because pediatric cancer patients often spend a lot of their time in the hospital, we want to be able to provide that sense of joy that other kids can feel that normally they probably can't with all the treatments that they go through. We often decorate the hospitals for different seasons, for different holiday events. We like to give them little goodie bags, for example, last year during around spring time, we hosted a mini prom for them, because typically, they are homeschooled, so they cannot participate in prom in their own high school, so we host the one at the hospital, where they can dance as well. Another example is that during winter time, we make blankets for them, because we know they can get cold, and these blankets are typically really full of patterns, so it can add a sense of color to the white hospital walls.
Emily Wen: The members of A Friend In Me regularly volunteer at the City of Hope hospital, but before being able to volunteer, the club provides a patient interaction workshop which helps educate general members on how to interact with a pediatric patient.
Sarah Fan: How we interact with the pediatric cancer patients depends on the situation we find ourselves in. How I interact with the pediatric cancer patient is that I do so by looking around, making observations around their room and commenting on what they seem to like. So for example, if there is someone who seems to like superheroes a lot because they have a lot of superhero drawings around the room, I'll ask them about their favorite superhero, such like that.
Emily Wen: Children with cancer often miss out on the everyday experiences that most kids enjoy. So as stated in the A Friend In Me mission, their main goal is to create a supportive community for these children within the hospital, while ensuring they still experience the joys of childhood.
Sarah Fan: I think a good way to help these patients, really is just to add a sense of color, because a lot of times in hospitals it’s just typically plain white, so being able to add decorations, even if it is something small, something just like, it's not much, but I think it adds a lot more a sense of home to patients, because then it isn't just like simply a hospital, it is actually something similar to something they can enjoy themselves in and just because they're there that often. And then I think a lot of times what we do is for a lot of our community service, like goodie bags, we make sure that it's handmade. And then there's also one of our clubs who offer a pen pal service, so you can write to a pediatric cancer patient. So I feel like just being able to connect, like for the patients to connect with someone, to be able to see the amount of time and effort we dedicate into making these things, it makes their experience a lot less uncomfortable.
Sarah Fan: Although these students have very good thoughts and want to give back to the community, there are multiple challenges that limit their ability to do so.
Sarah Fan: Definitely one of the challenges is actually shuttling, so being able to provide transportation to the hospital events, just because it is really difficult, considering that with a lot of, for example, the first years here, they're not allowed to bring a car, so to provide transportation, and sometimes, if there are not enough people who can volunteer to drive and carpool, that means there's a lot less people we can take to the hospital event. Not only that, I feel like a big challenge we face is also coordinating the events with the hospital, because, as like hospitals, you know, there are emergency situations, so they are busy all the time, it is difficult to coordinate times we can come over and help out with them.
Emily Wen: Despite these difficulties, the members still try their best to contribute and help out, even if it's not by physically volunteering at hospitals, they host events and activities on campus and invite guest speakers to educate general members. A friend In Me not only helps with the kids who have to stay in the hospital most of the time, but is also a good experience for these student volunteers.
Sarah Fan: I think it has impacted me, because being able to communicate with pediatric cancer patients has really made me realize that I do want to work with kids in the future. I, in the future, I plan to definitely like, have my career centered around working with children, just because it is really disheartening to see the youth put in that position.
Emily Wen: Sarah said that working in this nonprofit organization made her realize how important it is to give back to the community. Everyone's time is valuable. So rather than playing video games or something like that which only benefits oneself, it is more meaningful to help those who are not as fortunate as you. From 91.9 KVCR, it's Emily Wen.
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To learn more about A Friend In Me, visit afriendinme.org