‘Lily pads’ help young patients get out and about

Ormond Beach Observer
Neighbors

A Girl Scout project will help patients in Speediatrics at Halifax Health who are on IVs become a lot more mobile.

Two Ormond Beach Girl Scouts have built and donated Lily Pads, round platforms that slip onto the bottom of an IV stand, allowing a place for the patient to sit while maintaining connection with their IV. Their parent or another person can then easily push the patient down the hall, getting them out of their room in a fun and unique way.

The scouts recently delivered the Lily Pads to Speediatrics, the pediatrics unit at Halifax Health.

“We like for the patients to get up and out of their rooms as much as possible,” said Nurse Manager Amy Christie, “and it can be difficult for the parents when they are on an IV. Now they can get to the play room.”

Girl Scouts Ashley Boscovich, 13 and Megan McCormick, 14, of Troop 106 in Ormond Beach, made a half-dozen of the Lily Pads for their Silver Award project, the highest award a Girl Scout Cadette (middle school) can get. Girl Scouts at the high school level earn Gold Awards.

“It has to be a community service project to make the world a better place,” explained Megan.

Ashley and Megan knew they wanted to do a project that helped children, and troop co-leader Brandi Hartman showed them a You-Tube video of Lily Pads that had been invented by a teenager in Washington.

The scouts said they immediately agreed to do the project here when they say the video.

“We said, ‘We have to do that,’” Ashley said.

Megan’s dad, Joseph, cut out the plywood shapes, and the scouts did the sanding, priming, design and painting.

Joseph McCormick said when he heard what the girls were going to do, he got “all choked up,”

“It’s a great way to give back. I applaud them,” he said.

Alison Boscovich, mother and also troop leader, said the girls in the troop are very empathetic and enjoy caroling at a local nursing home.

“They are very involved,” she said. “They’re a good group of girls,”

She said Girl Scouts teaches leadership and the girls have taken ownership of the meetings.

“They tell me what they want to do,” she said.

She has been the leader since Ashley was in Daisy Scouts.

Designs of the Lily Pads include a mermaid, doughnut, lady bug and Captain America. There’s also a special one to honor Betty Jane France, who recently died. France funded the Speediatrics unit and was known for her philanthropy.

“We wanted to do it after we found out all she did for children and Speediatrics,” Ashley said. Megan pointed out that, in the design, France’s initials are carved on a tree as if a kid did it with a pocket knife, and a car in the design has “Speediatrics” on it.

Dana Allen, horticulture manager at Halifax Health and communications coordinator for area girl scouts, helped them get an IV pole they could use to help make the lily pads. Chris O’Brien of Harvard Jolly Architecture donated supplies.

Also at the presentation at the hospital was Jorel Rodriguez, who contributed for the materials when he found out about the project. Rodriguez, who works with Boskovich, had lost his brother to leukemia.

The boy in Washington who invented the lily pads had cancer and later died. A group in Seatlle makes the lily pads in his honor, and the project has been spreading across the country.

Ashley and Megan said they would make Lily Pads for a special request.

“We had a lot of fun making them and would make them for anyone,” she said.

Alison Boscovich can be reached at her State Farm office at 672-5111.

Other projects by area Girl Scouts include a ramp for people with a handicap and repainting Magic Forest Playground at Nova Recreation Center.