Armed with puffy paints and glitter glue, members of ASU Muralcles hope to bring a little joy to ill children.
The group will sew student-decorated fabric squares into a quilt that they will give to the Phoenix Children's Hospital, where members volunteer twice a week, Ryan Gonzales said.
Gonzales, a family and human development sophomore, said the group aims to cheer up patients and take their minds off their illnesses.
"A hospital's a scary place," she said. "We go in and lighten things up with lots of sparkles and colors."
Members of Muralcles - the group name combines "murals" with "miracles" - paint murals for the hospital but also do arts and crafts and sing songs with the children, Gonzales said.
The group collected donations and painted fabric squares from students on Hayden Lawn this week to show kids that ASU cares and to raise awareness for the club, she said.
Tobie Milford, a biology and society senior, improvises songs on the guitar for the kids, he said.
The kids are given drums and encouraged to participate in the singing, which distracts them from the hospital equipment, he said.
"It gives them a voice," Milford said. "It brings them out of their shells."
While the Phoenix Children's Hospital is an amazing hospital for kids, the children don't have any control over their situation, he said.
Playing along and creating works of art allows them to take back some of that control, he said.
Kristen Ohm, a biochemistry freshman, became involved with Muralcles when she came to ASU.
Because she wants to work with kids in hospitals when she's older, this is a perfect opportunity for her, she said.
"[The kids] are really cute," Ohm said. "They're really happy to see you."
Her favorite Muralcles activity was celebrating Christmas with the kids at the hospital's Christmas carnival, when the hospital was filled with festive decorations, she said.
"It's great just knowing that we're helping out," she said.
According to the group's Web site, asu.edu/clubs/muralcles, Muralcles was inspired by a movie, in which "a child died in a sterile, white hospital room void of any color or happiness," the Web site stated.
Standing next to rows of quilt squares proclaiming phrases such as, "Live, Love, Laugh" and "No Day But Today," Gonzales talked about the group's inspiration.
"When you go into a kindergarten, it's cheerful," she said.
Several of the patients have chronic illnesses, and Muralcles gives them a creative outlet to express themselves, she said.
Members take the kids down to the playroom or visit them at their bedsides if they're too sick to get up, Gonzales said.
The kids get to keep a pencil box full of stickers, paper, crayons and markers, she said.
The group's efforts also give the parents a break and let them release some tension, she said.
And the kids really enjoy it, she added.
"Their little faces just light up so much," she said.
Reach the reporter at: aimee.tucker@asu.edu.
