The Junior Joy Team & Elementary Students Deliver Joy to ER

Vancouver, WA.  Members of The Junior Joy Team and Hough Elementary Leadership Team delivered Happy Packets with hand-written notes of appreciation and candy to the entire staff of PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center’s Emergency Department over the holidays. The notes express thanks for all the care and healing the ER team provides everyday to people living in Vancouver, Washington. Founded in February 2010, The Joy Team is a 501c3 corporation based in Vancouver, Washington, with the mission of building community by spreading joy, optimism and inspiration.

ER Nurse Donna Mairose led a tour of the ER for the kids, who passed out Happy Packets along the way. The educational tour included hooking up kids to a heart monitor, applying wrist, neck and clavicle braces, measuring oxygenation of the blood and sitting inside an ambulance. Donna also stressed the importance of wearing helmets EVERY time kids ride bikes or skateboards and showed them the proper way to thoroughly wash hands as one of the best ways to stay healthy. 

The doctors, nurses and staff in the Emergency Department were selected to be recipients of The Joy Team’s Happy Packets because every day they’re working to save lives. “They take care of us when we need it the most,” said Michele McKeag Larsen, founder of The Joy Team, “and we wanted to say thank you.” On December 5th, ER nurse Stephanie spoke at a Hough Elementary assembly and the students wrote their thank you notes the following week.

The Joy Team has been partnering with Hough Elementary School in Vancouver since 2012 as a way to connect our youth in a new way to the community they live in, giving them the opportunity to express gratitude for the services that make our lives better in so many ways while spreading joy to the very people who provide those services.

From The Joy Team:

 Projects of the positive thought organization include putting up 100 positive messages (and counting), delivering over 2,250 Happy Packets to the staff of organizations serving the community through The Junior Joy Team, giving over 4,000 jars of joy-wrapped peanut butter to hungry kids through the PB & JOY Project and the annual Chalk the Walks event. Learn more at thejoyteam.org, like them on Facebook.com/TheJoyTeam or follow them on Twitter @TheJoyTeam.