We center our impact in communities by providing Gift Bags that contain items such as a coloring book, crayons, stuffed animal, pop-its, stress balls, decks of cards, and a handmade get-well card made by kids, for kids. All items in the gift bag are vetted by LSNF Directors to insure the items are appropriate and unused. These simple bags have an everyday impact by providing a positive distraction for patients, improving hospital employee morale, and empowering kids of all ages in communities to become future leaders. These bags are distributed to every pediatric patient who enters the emergency or admissions department at a hospital we work with every day of the year. That is why we pride ourselves in maintaining two-way, long-lasting relationships with hospitals that we work with so that no patient goes unserved. Since 2006 LSNF has provided over 100,000 gift bags to kids in hospitals across the United States. We pack and distribute between 100-700 gift bags to each hospital per month based on demand and available funding for the program.

In the hospital, this program has two areas of impact: positive patient experience and employee satisfaction. When a patient is waiting to be admitted to the hospital, they receive our Gift Bag to immediately relieve their anxiety related to visiting a hospital. This immediate relief of anxiety to passed along to the family members of the patient as they now have a big challenge solved. The focus shifts from panic mode to thinking clearly to best assist the patient. This anxiety-free, clear-thinking mentality is then passed along to the child life team as they now can work on bonding with the patent and their family instead of trying to solve a problem. This bonding process provides the child life team with valuable information about the patent to pass along to the treatment team of doctors and nurses. Now the treatment team can connect with the patient about the items in the gift bag and their hobbies to relieve the anxiety associated with treatment.

After treatment has occurred and it is time for the patient to leave the hospital, patients and their families can leave feeling like the hospital did everything they could to make a scary experience for children more comfortable from the moment they entered, all centered around a simple bag. This leads to patents and their families grading their hospital experience on hospital surveys a higher score than if there was no anxiety-relief program. This also instills a standard of care that is above most hospital experiences, leading to patients wanting to go back to the hospital for future matters.