MORGANTOWN – WVU Medicine Golisano Children’s marked the launch of Project Balloon – a program to lift the spirits of young patients – with a brief ceremony Friday morning.
Project Balloon will allow hospital providers and Child Life staff to request a balloon, with a get-well card, sent to a child’s bedside from the gift shop – a request that will be immediately fulfilled.
The program is a collaboration among Children’s, Waynesburg, Pa.-based Growing Up Greene child advocacy nonprofit, and First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Greene County, Pa., and its West Virginia subsidiary First Greene Mortgage.
Aaron Houser is executive director of Growing Up Greene and created the program.
“We spent a lot of time putting Project Balloon together,” he said.
“There are kids here who are very well taken care of in this state-of-the-art facility,” he said. “But there are kids here who don’t have families that can visit them as often as they’d like.”
And state agencies such as Children & Youth Services can’t staff a child’s room 24/7, he said. “Kids should not feel alone, especially at a time when they have to spend time as an inpatient. … We’re trying to let the kids know that they should not feel alone, and that they should be inspired by the fact that they’re not alone.”
After the ceremony, he explained the origin of Project Balloon. His middle son had a congenital heart defect, and they knew that around his third birthday he would require open heart surgery.
That day came, and during his five-day recovery, they walked the halls several times, Houser said. “His room was filled with eight or 10 balloons that had been sent by family, co-workers, our friends. Every time a new balloon came in, his eyes lit up like magic.”
But they noticed many rooms with kids with no balloons, sometimes with no visitors. Because many Greene County kids come to Children’s for treatment – in 2024, kids from Greene County accounted for the third-highest number of outpatient visits and the sixth-highest number of inpatient visits – he developed the idea to bring them cheer.
“The gift shop here and the Child Life team have been so amazing to just immediately jump on board with this,” he said. He learned that staff was purchasing balloons with their own funds, and now this fills that gap.
Houser said Project Balloon raised $10,000 from private donors and Greene County churches to launch the program. First Federal will donate another $5,000 later this year, and has pledged regular donations to sustain the program.
Houser and Chuck Trump, president and CEO of First Federal, said future donations will be based on need, determined from the first-year’s performance.
Trump said during the ceremony that Children’s holds a special meaning for his family. His oldest daughter, Elizabeth, is doing her pediatric residency there, and both grandsons were born there.
“The mission and the care and just the special nature of caring for children is a special calling,” he said.
“We bloom where we’re planted,” he said, and First Federal has a long tradition of partnering, supporting and working together. And has a long history in northern West Virginia as First Greene Mortgage.
“As soon as Aaron talked about this seed they’d planted, we knew we had to help it grow,” Trump said. “We just pray that there are families and young boys and girls that benefit from the love and the care and the thoughtfulness.”
He elaborated a bit after the ceremony, saying he’s known Houser for several years and learned about the project when he asked Houser how his son was doing after the surgery, “As soon as we heard about what was on his heart, that placed it on ours. … This is just how good things happen: People support and partner with one another.”
During the ceremony, Jen Ball, Children’s Director of Performance Excellence, said, “This is game-changing for patients who are having a bad day, going through a procedure. We really appreciate the opportunity to bring a little cheer to their lives and their beds.”
And Erin Blake, Children’s Director of Community and Donor Relations, said, “We’re so glad that Aaron came up with this project. We’re just really excited to have this new partnership with you and see how this can grow.”
