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Ghosts, Goblins and Ghouls Roam Halls at McCarty
Center
Ghosts, goblins
and ghouls, sprinkled with a few super heroes,
roamed the halls on Halloween at the J. D. McCarty
Center in Norman...and that was just the staff.
It is a long standing tradition at the McCarty
Center for members of the staff and patients
to dress up for Halloween and go trick or treating
at the various offices within the hospital.
This year was no exception.
Volunteer groups from the University of Oklahoma
were instrumental in helping the patients at
the McCarty Center have a good time. The McCarty
Center's therapy department hosts a fall carnival
with games that lend themselves to therapy activities
for both inpatients and outpatients. The activities
included pin the face on the pumpkin, coloring
Halloween pictures, bean bag toss, fall bingo,
scavenger hunt, soccer kick and temporary tattoos.
The kids earned "boo bucks" at each
activity stop. The kids then used their "boo
bucks" to buy gifts from the prize room.
McCarty Center volunteer Hanna Grosse, a senior
speech-language pathology major from San Antonio,
Texas, enlisted the help of members of her sorority,
Kappa Alpha Theta, and the Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji)
fraternity to set up the activities and hand
out "boo bucks" to the kids.
"Fraternities and sororities are always
looking for volunteer opportunities," said
Grosse. "Our houses wanted to do something
for Halloween and helping with this fall carnival
was something that interested both the Theta's
and Fiji's so we made it a joint project."
Approximately 17 members from both houses were
on hand to help with the fall carnival.
The women of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority hosted
the "Kappa Karnival" for the inpatients
on Halloween night. The carnival activities
included, face painting, cookie decorating,
fishing for prizes, marble painting and basketball
throw. Approximately 45 members of the Kappa
house were on hand to set up the carnival activities
and play with the kids.
The McCarty Center is the Kappa's local philanthropy
project. "I wanted more girls to get here
to see the hospital and interact with the kids,"
said Helen Tracy, a junior early childhood education
major from Cheyenne, Oklahoma, and philanthropy
chair for the Kappa's. "It's important
for the girls to see first hand what they work
so hard to support through the Kappa Klassic
golf tournament and the Fairy Tale Friends project."
The J. D. McCarty Center is Oklahoma's center
of excellence in the care and treatment of children
with developmental disabilities from birth to
21. Established here in Norman in 1946, the
hospital treated only one diagnosis…cerebral
palsy. Today the McCarty Center has treated
more than 70 different diagnoses in the developmental
disability category. The McCarty Center is the
only hospital of its kind in the state. In an
average year, the hospital will see children
from 70 of Oklahoma's 77 counties.
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Tiffani Holder (left)
gets her face painted by a member of Kappa
Kappa Gamma sorority from the University
of Oklahoma. The Kappa's hosted the "Kappa
Karnival" for the inpatients of the
J. D. McCarty Center on Halloween night.
The Kappa's were one of three greek organizations
from OU who volunteered to help with different
activities during the day on Halloween.
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Jeff Snowden
(left) gets a laugh watching Porter Graham
try on some special glasses he just bought
with his "boo bucks" during the
J. D. McCarty Center's fall festival sponsored
by the therapy department. Snowden, a member
of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at the University
of Oklahoma, and some of his fraternity
brothers volunteered with members of Kappa
Alpha Theta sorority, to set up and run
activity booths at the fall festival. As
the kids completed an activity they were
given "boo bucks" that they could
trade in for prizes of their choice.
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