Moonbeams flashes signs of support for kids in hospital

ROYAL OAK — Throughout the month of December, Corewell Health’s Beaumont Children’s Hospital has been putting on its annual Moonbeams for Sweet Dreams event.

Launched in 2017, Moonbeams aims to bring the community together to show support for the children in the hospital during the holiday season by flashing lights at the hospital windows.

“The community comes out and stands outside of the windows, just outside of our Beaumont Children’s Hospital, and the children look out their windows and the crowd looks up and they bring flashlights and they shine flashlights toward the children, and the kids shine back at them,” said Kathleen Grobbel, supervisor of Child Life Services and co-facilitator of Moonbeams.

“It’s this really beautiful communication of the community showing support, and all these lights mean that they’re out there for the kids, saying we love you, we care about you, you’re not alone. And the kids looking out on that can feel that support from upstairs and during a scary time when they’re not feeling well or they’re here for a while, or they’re missing school, parties or activities with their families because they’re in the hospital. They have this really fun event to look forward to every night and they can feel like they’re not alone,” Grobbel said.

Grobbel stated that getting to do Moonbeams each year has been very special and that they’ve been lucky to have the community come out and support the kids.

“We’ve been really lucky that our community is supportive of it but also that our hospital and hospital administration has been supportive,” she said. “Moonbeams was started just as an idea from a parent to help children feel less isolated and afraid during the holiday season, and it really has done that. I think as you look at the lights flashing from the windows upstairs, and when I stand upstairs with the kids, you can really hear that they feel that support and they’re kind of like looking out and saying, ‘Wow, everybody’s here for me.’ So it’s been really special to be a part of that.”

Shelley Chinn, a teacher at Cranbrook Schools, has brought her students to Moonbeams every year that she’s been able to outside of the years it was canceled due to COVID-19.

Seeing her students experience Moonbeams, Chinn said she doesn’t think any of them anticipated how fulfilling and emotional the event would be for them.

“As a teacher, I can explain it to them, but you have to experience it to understand just how much you feel for the children that are in the hospital at that time and being surrounded by everyone from the community,” she said “That really is overwhelming just with the community as a whole.”

Chinn not only has experienced Moonbeams as a participant with her students, but she experienced it inside the hospital as well.

Chinn’s daughter, Abby, had a seizure and was diagnosed with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. When she took her daughter to Beaumont to get a sleep study a couple of years later in 2017, she was placed in the pediatric wing, and she and Abby saw the flashing lights from the hospital.

Chinn had taken her students to see the first Moonbeams just five days prior.

“You can imagine how overwhelming that was,” she said. “I had just been outside with my students, and now here I am inside looking out and it was really emotional, actually, for both of us. The amount of lights that you see from inside looking out, they’re just multiplied exponentially.”

Moonbeams takes place at 8 p.m. each night at the hospital, located at 3601 W. 13 Mile Road. It began this year on Dec. 8 and will run until Dec. 23.

Participants should gather on the sidewalk near the hospital’s medical office building and across from the east entrance. People who are experiencing symptoms of a cold, flu or COVID-19 are asked not to attend, and people are asked not to bring drones or laser pointers to the event.

For more information, visit beaumont.org/moonbeams.