Kiwanis Club helps to brighten pediatric room of local medical facility
Krista Groll, an advanced practice registered nurse at Onaway Family Medical Center, believed that something was needed in the pediatric room of the facility.
Other than necessary medical equipment, the walls were bare. Magazines do a fine job of grabbing the attention of adults, but they don’t work as well with children.
Something was needed for the examining room to brighten it up and make it more inviting.
Groll is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Onaway, a service organization which was restarted about a year ago in the area, who decided to propose her thoughts of improving the room to fellow Kiwanians.
SINCE THE mission of Kiwanis International is to “serve the children of the world,” the project seemed to be a perfect fit for the local club. “She came to Kiwanis a year ago and we were looking for projects, and she said it would really be nice if we had interesting things in the room,” said Kiwanis Club member Carol Latsch. “She said, I’ve got these ideas and this is what I would like.”
Groll needed to find an artist to paint cartoon characters on the walls of the room, so no matter direction the children looked, the creations would be seen.
Kiwanis members approached several people, but after a year they couldn’t find anybody to paint the characters for them. “So, finally ‘we said we can do that,’ ” said Latsch, who offered to give it a try.
Groll wanted a couple of familiar characters and a dragon to cover parts of three walls.
LATSCH NEEDED an example of a dragon before getting started, and found what she was looking for in a coloring book at the Salvation Army. She projected the image on the wall and pain
Latsch, who has been involved in several service projects in Onaway over the years, was surprised the project took less than a week. Since the completion of the drawings Groll said the reaction has been great.
“Everybody seems to like them,” said Groll. “The 18-month-olds to two-year-olds just stare at the dragon with their mouth hanging open with big eyes – it’s really kind of cool to watch.”
Latsch said, “What a better way to have them (children) enjoy a trip to the doctor’s office, instead of dreading it.”
The Onaway Kiwanis Club meets every Wednesday at noon at Nanny’s Kitchen in Tower.