Bricks of Hope delivers LEGO sets to brighten lives of sick kids in hospitals
OAK LAWN, Ill. (CBS) -- Some LEGO sets are headed to kids stuck in hospitals, as the centerpiece of a new nonprofit organization.
The idea came from one man who has been through it himself. Ada, Petraglia survived leukemia as a child, and now his mission is to brighten the lives of kids like him with the timeless joy of LEGO bricks.
A total of 170 LEGO sets were delivered to Advocate Children's Hospital in Oak Lawn on Tuesday. Each will provide a dose of something a sick child needs just as much medicine.
"To be able to just have fun in such an environment that you typically don't think about fun," Petraglia said.
Petraglia knows well the power LEGO toys can have to change a life.
"It was play that started to engage me again and let me share my feelings, share my emotions, let me have my imagination back and be a kid again," he said.
More than 21 years ago, it was his life that flipped upside down.
"I was sick leading up to my 11th birthday. My parents couldn't kind of figure out what was going on, so I was sent to Advocate Children's Hospital in Park Ridge," Petraglia said. I started getting tested, and on the night of my 11th birthday was diagnosed with leukemia."
Petraglia spent the next six months in the hospital - at times incubated and bed-bound. While LEGO toys were his way into play, Petraglia says it was his child life specialists who brought them, and him, back to life.
"They came in during my hardest days when I didn't want to talk to anybody, but they helped me talk," Petraglia said. "They helped me express my feelings with LEGO. It was as simple as that."
Now, Petraglia is fostering that simple but, life-changing experience for other kids through his non-profit, Bricks of Hope. So far, he has delivered 700 LEGO sets to seven area hospitals, - equipping child life specialists like Denise Morrissey Chaveriat with the tools, or toys, they need.
And the meeting between Petraglia and Chaveriat wasn't just a delivery – it was a reunion. She was there with Petraglia when he was getting treated.
"He's a survivor, and certainly looking at him – both physically and just the glow about him - it's just amazing," Chaveriat said. "It's wonderful, and it just shows you what the spirit can do."
Only the spirit could take a childhood cancer diagnosis and call it something else.
"It's a birthday gift. It was a birthday gift," Petraglia said. "Back then, it was probably a horrible birthday gift. But today, it's a gift."
To get involved with Bricks of Hope, follow this link for their website.
