The Wonder of the Season

In December, Candy Cane Lane once again transformed The Floating Hospital’s Community Center into a jolly replica of Santa’s workshop, with twinkling lights, tinsel, and gifts galore, prompting squeals of delight and merry faces everywhere. 

This year, we served more than 1,000 visitors—843 of them children—providing new coats, sneakers, winter clothing, pajamas, toys, games, books, and other gifts for the holidays. Some 4,700 items were received in all, making it a happier holiday for kids whose circumstances were less than joyful last year. The heart and spirit on display, and in each and every gift, showed families—uprooted from the lives they knew and transplanted into the uncertainty of temporary housing—that they mattered to a community of caring individuals. 

Gifts of time, goods, and money 

Monetary and in-kind donation valuations approached six figures. Beautiful seasonal bouquets arrived for mothers from botanique, a floral designer based in Nyack, New York. Gift cards, baby needs, cosmetics, blankets, electronics, grippy socks, hygiene kits, puzzles, and handmade hats, dresses, and quilts made up the balance of complimentary items the families could select to make their holidays brighter. Most of those attending were experiencing homelessness for the first time after fleeing domestic violence or were priced out of their previous housing. 

Santa’s helpers included staff members and a multitude of volunteers from Bank of America, United Federal Credit Union, Dow Jones, Tandym Group, JetBlue, Weill Cornell Medicine, Alliant, Allen-Stevenson School Parents/Teachers, members of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Alliance Women in Healthcare Give Back group, and Floating Hospital board members as well as friends and members of our extended family. 

Those who gave donations and in-kind gifts to the five-day event included many of the volunteer groups plus Kohl’s, Dreamwear, Access-VR Queens DO, Blackbarn restaurant, the New York City Bureau of Human Resources, Calcium+Company, Carol Brown and friends, Common Point Queens, Good Housekeeping, The Factory, OSH Nursing, LIC Partnership, the Lamont family, Lenox Hill Radiology-Radent, Gregoria Malaspina, Paddi Studio, Rise Light & Power, Ronald McDonald House, and Soles4Souls.  

We are grateful to all of them all for making some dark days happier last year.