North Central Baptist Hospital has a new look at its pediatric center. Wednesday, 50 new ceiling tiles with bright, painted designs were installed above the beds. They're meant to give young patients a positive image to look at during their stay, instead of the blank tiles.
Troop 1335 is behind this special project. They spent several weekends with volunteers at Pinot's Pallette in Alamo Heights to get the tiles ready. The troop was thinking of ideas for their community service project to earn a Silver Award, which is the highest award a scout can earn. One of the troop members, Jessa Nelson, suggested they paint tiles.
In 2005, her brother, Michael Joseph Nelson, was born with multiple congenital anomalies. During the time he was alive and getting treatment at a hospital, Nelson said her mother, Angel, decided to paint ceiling tiles. She painted a butterfly and a Superman logo on two tiles.
Eyewitness News spoke with one couple whose daughter was staying in the PICU. The father said he appreciated the girl's work.
"She's starting to look around, notice things more and she sat there for a good 10-15 minutes looking at the monkey. It was really cute," father Chris Carney said. "It means a lot, really. It's scary enough for any child to come in. Scary for the parents also. To just have something like that -- it brings a smile right away. Makes it a little bit easier to deal with."
The Girl Scout troop said after seeing the staff and families' reactions at the hospital, the hours they spent working on the tiles was worth it.
"Knowing that this helps people and can brighten their day and make them less afraid is really uplifting," Nelson said.
"It makes me a lot happier knowing that a lot of these kids loved it," troop member Alicia Sells added.
"It was emotional. Like wow, I painted that and it's making someone's day," said Kyla Tebo.
"Makes me feel that I brought some joy to someone's day. They don't have to be, I don't want to say depressed," another troop member, Donna Sayfi, said. "Lonely or depressed that they're just sitting here."
"It's really exciting," Margaret Zentil said. "We made our mark and changed people's lives."