Young patients surprised with presents at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit

DETROIT – Every September, for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Cornerstone Community Financial Credit Union does a toy drive for the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, but this year was different.

“This year, the hospital told us they were requesting games, so we came up with the concept of ‘Be a game changer,’” said Cornerstone Community Financial Marketing Specialist Amber Bearckholtz.

With donations from as far as Nevada, they collected 500 games, including some of the classics.

“We’re a very nostalgic team, so as we were tagging them with all of our names, we were looking at them and reminiscing about ‘oh, I played this with my family’ like Trouble and Sorry,” Bearckholtz said.

Hospital CEO Archie Drake says the games are significant to patients and their recovery.

“Kids can stay here for months, and throughout that time, yes, they are getting treatment, they’re getting medication, but they also have to have time for therapy recreation to keep their mind stimulated to keep them motivated to be participants in the care so toys like this, donations like this go a long way for helping the children heal,” said Drake.

The recreation portion of the treatment takes a load of the families supporting those children.

“With everything being high in cost, the patients probably don’t have the money to go out to get something for comfort, so we’re really eager to give back in a small or big way as much as we can,” Bearckholtz said. “Games were as little as $5 on up, so every little bit of the donation helped in some kind of way.”

Over the past eight years, Cornerstone Community Financial has collected and donated 11,000 new toys, games, and stuffed animals for the initiative.