For children and their families, a cancer diagnosis can be overwhelming. The moment the diagnosis is communicated, feelings of fear, anxiety, and overall turmoil are devastating, and what was a happy, carefree childhood becomes an uncertain future.
Pediatric Cancer Foundation New Jersey has been designed to help children and families in three ways: through support services, educational research grants, and arts programs that improve and enhance the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of all involved – especially the child or young adult.
Erin Wittig, sister of our founder, James C. Wittig, MD, established Positively Creative in parallel with her brother’s vision for helping families in the Garden State come through their cancer journeys with activities not available through hospitals or cancer centers. While medical teams treat the patient with surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and other methods, our team of volunteers brings resources, hope, and joy.
The mission of Positively Creative arts programs is to help children express their thoughts and feelings through creative mediums – coloring, painting, pottery making, baking and decorating, and more.
Whether delivered through individual visits to hospitals and cancer centers or through Positively Creative Arts Parties, our team brings all the supplies, the art teachers, and the energy and love to each occasion.
“Children with cancer often struggle to express their feelings,” Erin said. “Our activities are customized for each child or the group of children and can include meaningful crafts, including creating thank you cards for their parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and their doctors, nurses, physical therapists, and more.”
When the children create cards or gifts, the Positively Creative team makes sure they are wrapped, packaged, and mailed or otherwise delivered to the recipients.
“The Children can also create works of art that remain in their hospital room with them, or that decorate infusion rooms,” Erin explained. “We are a new organization, and inviting volunteers to join us in making the experiences amazing – with live music or a DJ, with dancers or puppets…these creative interactions bring smiles to the children and their families and care teams, keeping joy alive even as the healing journey advances.”
“We are also developing programs with facility-trained comfort animals, and outside the facilities, for example, equine therapy programs,” Dr. Wittig said. “We are actively recruiting other non-profit organizations to partner with, and as an animal lover and animal rights activist, this part of the program has special meaning for me.”
By engaging in creativity, children can be children, can feel a sense of control, express themselves, and find ways to say thank you with beautiful works of art that will be cherished for decades to come.
A Message from Erin
This project has been my desire for many years, and now it is being brought to light. My goal is simple: to bring a therapeutic approach to children through fun and creative projects. This is something that is core to me, and precious, something I’ve personally enjoyed since I was a young adult.
I used creative projects, thanks to my mother, Judith Wittig, to help me cope with an illness. The impact this had on my life is unexplainable. The mere presence of doing something creative brought me through hard times.
