TVD Arts & Crafts

The Beginning

Project TVD Arts & Crafts is a project that Tri’s wife, Mimi, started with their daughter Kellie in 2015 as a way for them to bond over sharing this experience together and to give Kellie better perspectives on things. At first, Mimi wasn’t sure of its value, whether their little playtime with the pediatric patients did anything to lift up their spirit. However, Mimi and Kellie weren’t prepared for the overwhelming response, of the joy and appreciation from the young patients and their parents alike. They were later told by the hospital staff how much the fun activity had brightened the children’s day when they got to be kids for a few hours, while their parents were able to further bond with their children in a fun way... Read More

2022

The pandemic has put our TVD trip on hold for three years, and our 2022 trip was our first time coming back since 2019. Due to Covid still being a threat around the world, we’ve decided to conduct this arts & craft project a bit differently than prior to protect the pediatric patient’s health. We still interacted but with masks on, stayed six-feet away as caution, and instead of conducting our arts & craft sessions together as before, we just visited the hospital to distribute gifts to the young patients on different hospital floors, and red envelopes for their parents.

Additionally, in order to bring more value to the young patients and young volunteers alike, the hospital agreed to allow us to spend an hour in a hospital’s play room for the young patients to meet our young “Americans” and ask each other questions to learn more about each other’s lives. This turned out to be the highlight of our young volunteers that was enjoyed by the patients as well, as they found commonality and learned from each other’s differences.

It was through this “getting to know each other” session that we learned about Vy’s story, and rallied to raise money the next day to make her wish come true. (Read the full story here).

This was one of the unforgettable experiences that really captured the essence of our arts & craft project, which we were grateful to be marveled at the beauty of humanity.