When Nicole Lee saw just how many school supplies she and her colleagues on the Pediatric Intermediate Care Unit (PIMCU) at Boston Children's Hospital had collected, her first thought was, "We're going to need a bigger car."
As part of ongoing effort by the PIMCU team at Boston Children's, Lee, a nurse on the unit, and her colleagues regularly seek ways to engage their coworkers and give back to communities like the ones they serve each day at the hospital. To start the school year, Lee and her team elected to partner with the Angelo School in Brockton, where Lee's mother Robin works as a speech language pathologist, collect and donate a wide variety of supplies — from backpacks and crayons to tissues and sanitizing wipes.
To do it, the PIMCU team had set aside a modest sized box that would be delivered to the Angelo once filled. Instead, they ended up with enough supplies to fill a conference room table and the chairs around it in the Angelo School's front office.
"It means everything to us," Lee said. "We work with elementary age children and we see those children come in who are in and out of school because of illness."
Standing next to the table filled with over $1,000 in donated supplies, Angelo School Principal John Kelly said that the BCH team's generosity will go a long way toward bridging gaps for students in need and will be essential to supporting students' learning.
"This right here will help a lot of families get the supplies they need to support their learning in the classroom," Kelly said. "Our kids here are going to benefit greatly, so I just want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts."