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 Volunteers With Game Help Heal Hearts
New children's charity in the upstate, Isaac's Friends, enlists volunteers to play video games with hospitalized children.
 An integral part of the mission of Isaac's Friends is to get the local community involved in helping others in need. Any one of us could face a situation where our children, brothers and sisters, family or friends has to spend time in the hospital due to illness or injury. There are no social barriers when someone's little boy or little girl is lying sick in a hospital bed. To care for our "neighbor" is an exercise in compassion, love, and humility that nourishes the human soul of the volunteer as much as it does the patient. Our charity gets people involved in their community by reaching out to a universal idea - helping children.
 Our service involves using laptop computers and age appropriate games to take into local hospitals where teens and children are under long term care. Volunteers will talk and play games with the children for about two hours per visit depending on the patients' conditions. The purpose is to provide love and care through attention, socializing, and play. The volunteers will help bring some normalcy to the children's lives amidst abnormal and often depressing situations.
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 Research studies have shown that fun interaction time helps benefit the children in ways like:
- Reduced pain and distress
- A reduction in the fear and isolation of a prolonged illness
- A greater willingness to return for treatment
- An increased sense of peer support
- Increased knowledge and sense of responsibility for managing disease
- Much needed distraction from the challenges that accompany their illness
- Increased ability to cope with their disease
Isaac's Friends also serves families staying in the Ronald McDonald House in Greenville by visiting well siblings staying there and playing games with them. Our organization also provides video game systems and games for the children's hospitals and the Ronald McDonald House to keep there for children and families to use
Our immediate goals are to recruit additional volunteers and secure sponsorships from local businesses in order to increase our services to 4 additional hospitals in SC and one in NC plus one additional Ronald McDonald House in SC.
 To understand what LOVE means to a child, please take just three short minutes and watch this movie,
We appreciate your support.
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Friends. We encourage everyone to contribute to this great cause, whether it be monetary or serving as a volunteer. Taking care of our children produces a stronger community.
