Watch, read or both. Here’s why we created The Big Fun Box.
Our work is dedicated to the inspiration and spirit of co-founder, J. Grant Prather, 1982 – 2009
Our Story
Our Big Fun attitude has helped my family and me keep things in perspective through 26 years of living with cystic fibrosis, a bilateral lung transplant 8 years ago and now cancer. I’ve spent hundreds of nights in the hospital.
Sometimes I was alone and other times I was surrounded with family and friends. There were times that we were worried and stressed and other times, just bored. Sometimes I was in a lot of pain and didn’t even feel like lifting my head off the pillow. There were times that I was confined to my room and times that I was encouraged get out of my room and build up my strength by walking.
During it all, we used our sense of humor and imagination to help us pass the time or distract ourselves from pain, sleeplessness, worry, waiting, or to make a walk more enjoyable.
That’s what we want to share with others in the same or similar situations.
Along the line of “Give a man a fish, and he’ll have fish for a day, but teach a man to fish and he’ll have fish for life,” the activities in The Big Fun Box encourage children, and those around them, to use their imaginations to help take their minds off their problems, now and in the future.
What We Do
We raise money to purchase the items in The Big Fun Box at wholesale pricing. Then our volunteers carefully and lovingly label and stuff the red cases and they become creative and imaginative Big Fun Boxes. Then they are donated to hospitalized children around the country.
Naturally, the more money we raise, the more Big Fun Boxes we can create by purchasing items in the largest quantities possible. This allows us to make the best use possible of our FunDonors’ donations.
How We Do It
We stuff thousands of Big Fun Boxes that are then shipped to Child Life or other pediatric support departments at hospitals. Team members then deliver them to the patients.
The Big Fun Box is intended to help families who are in the midst of stressful times and would benefit most from knowing others have been in their situation and want to help them through it.
We constantly look for new activities to keep The Big Fun Box fresh, fun and meaningful.