How a simple request prompted Amazon to bring light and hope to CT specialty hospital

Hartford Courant – Thursday, November 28, 2024
By Pamela McLoughlin

Amazon literally lived up to its logo this week by bringing smiles to patients, families and staff at Gaylord Specialty Healthcare.

It was a simple gift of white lights, strings, a herd of deer, orbs, arches, other figures and the word, “Hope,” to light up the courtyard.

Yet, there were smiles all around. For the third year Amazon will also give out trees and menorahs to any patient who wants one.

“These are the darkest days of the year and hospitalization can be dark,” said Gaylord official Tara Knapp, noting how Amazon is living its logo. “It helps to normalize their (patient) lives. They would normally be out seeing lights.”

A staff member at Gaylord who wishes to remain anonymous, wrote to the business giant to see if they could provide the materials to light up the courtyard.

The staffer had seen two years earlier how much joy a small, brightly lit tree of one patient could bring.

The tree brought so much happiness, even to other patients. that the patient asked family and friends to order about 30 of them for other patients.

So this year, the anonymous Gaylord employee wrote to Amazon and the “backstory,” touched a chord in Amazon spokesman Mike Murphy.

“When (the employee) said they were interested in expanding the lights and bring more joy, I was happy to partner with this project,” Murphy said.

He said they typically donate to causes such as STEM education, food insecurity, and disaster relief, so, “This is slightly out of those core focus areas.”

But Murphy was compelled to jump on the computer and start ordering.

“We’re delivering joy and hope,” Murphy said. “If we can bring some joy and hope that’s what we want to do.”

Murphy couldn’t immediately quantify the lights and extension chords, but the anonymous Gaylord official said it involved 1,000 LED bulbs, across 2,200 feet of string – “more than twice as high as Eiffel Tower.”

Murphy said Amazon has about 17,000 employees in Connecticut and the Windsor office alone has distributed $4 million to local non-profits year to date.

Gaylord, which is located on a 400-acre campus in Wallingford, has lights on the building, but not in the courtyard where patients can see them. The facility specializes in medical rehabilitation but also has myriad other services. According to the hospital, the average length of stay is 25 days, but also varies depending on the patients needs.

Knapp said the trees look “magical” with lights.

Gaylord’s outdoor courtyards are visible to all hospital patients from their rooms or hallways and are lit up for the first time ever.

One person whose happy about the lights is Linda Scelza, whose son, Ryder, 20, is currently at Gaylord recovering from brain surgery.

She said it would mean a lot to Ryder because every year they go out and look at Christmas lights on houses and in parks.

“I’m looking forward to it. It looks beautiful so far,” she said. “I think it will mean a lot to Ryder because he can’t leave to go anywhere and we always went to all the lights all over the place.”

She added: “I think it will bring a lot of joy to a lot of patients. It’s a sparkle … it shines; it makes you happy, really happy.”

Gaylord officials said there were lots of oohs and ahhs from patients during a test run.

The lights have been officially turned on for the season, following a ceremony.

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