Wow! It’s amazing how quickly you can resort back to being a creative, fun loving carefree kid!
It was Sunday, 15 August 2010 when two of us little raize the roofers, Raglan and I, ventured up to the Sydney Children’s Hospital Starlight Express Room (SER) in Randwick for a chance to check out the place where Captain Starlight orchestrates his own brand of fun and mayhem, alongside the latest computer games, movies, crafts and activities.
And fun and mayhem it was! On arrival it was straight to the craft table for nerdy Danielle where I quickly unleashed my very sketchy drawing skills, asked by a special little Starlight Express kiddie to draw the not so simple, West Tiger’s logo!
There was beading, glitter, painting, drawing and an array of weird and wonderful art projects underway! I even invented a new style of creature for one of the creative critters… a Giraffasaurus! When in doubt… make stuff up!
Raglan headed straight to the wall of consoles to challenge the PS3 playing pros, unleashing his not so fabulous skills on Tekken IV. I hear along the grapevine the champion little kidlets absolutely hammered him! There were tears! Poor Raglan!
We were also lucky enough to see the creativity and interaction of the Captain Starlights and the way they so cleverly engage with the kids on the wards who are unable to leave their beds. One little girl was made famous when her carefully scripted substitute words for P!NK’s ‘So What’ blasted down the corridors on Starlight TV, thanks to the not so musically talented Captain Starlight!
Then it was our turn to participate in some live television! Yep… we were hosts of the live daily Captain Starlight show broadcast to kids too ill to leave their beds! Our moment of fame!
The ‘Where’s Eddie the Clown?’ Game involved the assistance of one of the patients’ brothers who, like all brothers and sisters of seriously unwell kids, is welcome to escape the tedium of waiting around in hospital corridor at the hospital. It was pretty wild with kids dialling in from their beds to take a shot at guessing which stack of blocks sneaky Eddie was hiding behind! It was cute, inspiring and very grounding to say the least!
The experience at the SER quickly reminded me of why raize the roof is supporting Starlight! It took just moments to see the way in which Starlight is brightening the lives of seriously ill children and their families, and how quickly it transformed my day! What an experience!
Danielle
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