Naperville community treats parents of sick kids just like family

Pink boxes of cupcakes are stacked atop a cabinet in a room in a hospital where there's a large spread of Thanksgiving-esque food, a couple of tables and couches, a toy corner, two computers and no hospital bed.

This isn't a patient room, but the Ronald McDonald Family Room at Edward Hospital in Naperville.

A visit to the room is like a tour through the generosity of Naperville, on a micro scale.

The room is a well-stocked 1,700 square feet full of comforts for families of young patients in the pediatric or neonatal intensive care unit, and volunteers say it's a living example of the "it takes a village" theory, showing community contributions can converge to support a worthy cause.

"It's compact, but we have a lot here," said Jessica Jozwiak of Naperville, a volunteer who's co-chairwoman of the Ronald McDonald Family Room's community council.

She's not kidding.

The donations that have made the Family Room the respite it's been since opening in 2012 are almost too many to count. And the 75 volunteers who comfort the families are thankful for them all.

"Random acts of kindness are common here," Jozwiak said.

Lego frequently drops off piles of toys.

Girl Scouts create fleece tie blankets for families who stay overnight in one of the two sleep rooms. So do patients in the hospital's cancer center and volunteers with the blanket-making group Project Linus.

A preschool in Naperville donates books every year.

Two computers in the room were donated by the Naperville Noon Lions Club and Coldwell Banker.

Cabinets to hold coffee supplies and donated food came free from IKEA. (The coffee supplies are important, Jozwiak says. "If nothing else, everyone takes a cup of coffee.")

All kinds of kids movies in binders full of DVDs trickle in from families who don't want them anymore. Families can check out an iPad or a DVD player to bring to their child's room for a bit of entertainment other than daytime TV.

And then there's the food.

On Trader Joe's Tuesday once a month, the grocery chain's Naperville store stocks the fridge with food. Healthy and fresh foods that Jozwiak says the room otherwise would never see, such as organic soups, hummus, fresh fruit and even fresh flowers.

Restaurants including Eggs Inc. and Aurelio's Pizza take turns catering meals for the families, while other businesses such as Keystone Business Services, Prospect Mortgage and Swiss Re also sponsor weekly or monthly food donations. Naperville-area residents whose children previously were in the hospital are among those who pay it forward in the Family Room by bringing in food for the families who now have sick kids.

On Wednesday, which brings lots of visitors to the Family Room because it's outpatient treatment day in the pediatric unit, White Eagle Golf Club delivers homestyle comfort foods with vegetables and salads.

"You know how important, as simple as it sounds, a meal becomes," said Paul Geallis, White Eagle's general manager, who says he and his staff enjoy contributing to the Family Room because many of them have experienced a long hospital stay with a family member. "It's such a comfort when you're in this position."

And what says comfort better than cupcakes?

The Naperville location of Smallcakes: A Cupcakery donates "extra" goodies twice a week. But the topped and filled sweets aren't so much leftovers as they are specially made delicacies for the Family Room's guests, say Smallcakes owners Jill and Robert Watson.

"We tend to bake a little more on Tuesdays and Thursdays," which come right before cupcake donation days, Jill Watson said. "Bringing a little cupcake can make their day."

Simply having another place to go other than a hospital room can make a parent's day, too, said Joanne Besterfield of Naperville. As the mother of a 17-year-old with autism, Besterfield recently used the Family Room when her son, William Kibbe, was in the hospital to find the cause of a recent episode of disorientation and slurred speech.

"This room has been really, really wonderful to have access to," Besterfield said. "It's providing an opportunity away from sitting and waiting."

While William underwent hours of tests, Besterfield said she became a frequent visitor to the Family Room, where volunteers like Jozwiak reminded her to take care of herself, not only her son.

"It's good to be reminded to eat," Besterfield said. "The all-beef hot dog I had the first night never tasted so good."

A plastic jar full of silver pop tabs might appear to be one of the least useful elements of the Family Room, which is located on the hospital's first floor near the pediatric intensive care unit. The jar, however, is a symbol of the work Naperville high school students Maggie O'Brien, a junior at Naperville Central, and Miranda Juarez, a sophomore at Neuqua Valley, are doing to raise money for the cause.

Maggie and Miranda, along with the Interact club at Neuqua and the DECA business club at Naperville Central, are preparing for a May 9 pop tab donation drive in the hospital's parking lot at Osler and Brom drives to collect as many pounds as possible to be recycled by United Scrap Metal. Miranda said the Ronald McDonald Family Room will receive 55 cents for each pound of pop tabs collected, and some students are already stashing the openers from each can they drink.

"We came up with a slogan 'Pop it and drop it,'" Maggie said. "We thought that was cute."

Aiming for a homelike atmosphere to ease the stress of a child's hospital stay, Jozwiak says the Family Room functions only because so many people, clubs and businesses give their time, treats and talents. The room is open between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. each day.