By Kate Wood
Savannah Jones’s work with Once Upon a Room has led to some hard but rewarding experiences. One time, she decorated the hospital room of a boy who had suffered from a severe neck injury that happened during a wrestling match that a lot of Lovett students attended. He ended up paralyzed from the neck down.
“It felt really nice to be able to make a personal difference for someone in our community,” she said.
Once Upon a Room is a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization that transforms the hospital rooms of children seeking medical treatment, aiming to bring joy to children at a tough time in their lives.
Although it originated on the West Coast, it has made its way to Atlanta, and specifically, Lovett! I met with junior Savannah Jones, an experienced member of the organization, to gather information about the club, and more specifically, her story as a Once Upon a Room-er.
Savannah joined the organization during her freshman year when her senior PALs, Elise Kuzniak and Devon Gupta, tried to recruit her advisory to join. Savannah was the only one who actually followed through, and she has remained committed to the organization for the past three years.
She’s actually connected with two groups, one that meets outside of school and a club affiliated with Lovett. “Basically, the one outside of Lovett is a bit more involved,” she said. “We focus more on hosting fundraisers and actually going to the hospital rooms to decorate them, while the Lovett club usually makes goodie bags or writes cards to bring to the rooms.”
One type of fundraising they do is through “babysitting nights.” Essentially, they host Lower School girls at a club member’s house, where they have fun activities set up for the girls. They charge parents approximately the same amount of money you would charge a babysitter, and all the profits go to Once Upon a Room.
As for the meetings themselves, they “usually start with an icebreaker so that the members are comfortable working together,” Savannah said. “Then we usually work on fundraising letters or plan the events that we host.”
But while she appreciates the experience she’s gained learning how to fundraise and present to people, the most meaningful part for her is still what happens in the rooms. I asked Savannah what a typical room decorating process entails. “We ask the parents beforehand what the child likes, and we buy supplies to decorate the room accordingly,” she said. Depending on the treatment the child is undergoing and their schedule, they may be asleep or not in the room. If they’re lucky, they get to meet the child.
“Decorating rooms is really rewarding because you get to see the difference it makes,” she said, “especially when the parents are happy after seeing their child smile in such a tough time.”
