The Dalles resident and Hood River Valley High School junior Gillian Wolf, center, dressed as Anna from “Frozen,” organized a trip to Shriners Hospital in Portland to sing songs to children. Joining her were fellow juniors Aleeyah Enriquez, left, dressed as Ariel from “The Little Mermaid,” and Freya Chase, dressed as Elsa from “Frozen.”
The Dalles resident and Hood River Valley High School junior Gillian Wolf, center, dressed as Anna from “Frozen,” organized a trip to Shriners Hospital in Portland to sing songs to children. Joining her were fellow juniors Aleeyah Enriquez, left, dressed as Ariel from “The Little Mermaid,” and Freya Chase, dressed as Elsa from “Frozen.”
Gillian Wolf, who lives in The Dalles and is a junior at Hood River Valley High School, recently donned a Disney princess costume, and, with two fellow students also in costume, sang for kids at hospitals in Portland.
The effort was part of Wolf’s extended application project, a requirement for each junior at Hood River Valley. She said she chose the project because she loves to sing and wanted to “bring joy to kids who were suffering,” she wrote in an article submitted to the Chronicle.
She thought it would be a good opportunity for her fellow singers to get out of their comfort zones and gain some confidence when it came to singing solos.
Wolf talked to several hospitals, and Shriners Hospital agreed to help. “This was exciting for me since my grandfather has been a Shriner for several decades.”
Her grandfather, Dr. Wally Wolf of The Dalles, lauded her efforts. “I think it was pretty nice of the kids to do that,” noting, “And apparently they made a decent impression.”
His own father instilled in him the importance of giving back to the community. “That was just what you considered as part of living,” he said.
Dr. Wolf said he joined the Shriners years ago because “they do good things. I had a couple uncles that were Shriners back in Kansas. They were always bragging a lot about the things they did.”
He said the beauty of the Shriners Hospital is that it’s free to patients. Historically, the biggest patient load for the Shriners Hospital was polio patients – “we used to have a hospital full of kids on iron lungs” -- but with eradication of that disease, its new focus is on birth defects, cleft palate and spinal problems.
Visiting Shriners with Wolf was Aleeyah Enriquez and Freya Chase, also juniors at Hood River Valley. Wolf dressed as Anna from Frozen, Enriquez dressed as Ariel from The Little Mermaid, and Chase dressed as Elsa from Frozen. Wolf included quotes from her fellow singers in her article.
“When we arrived at Shriners on April 28, we met with Kathy Krueger Park, who is director of development, and she escorted us to the lobby. We performed for two children there, and then went to individual patient rooms,” Wolf said.
“Afterwards, we walked across the street to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital to sing to any children who were waiting in the lobby. We gave each kid a card with Disney princesses on it and a special message from each of us,” Wolf said.
“Doing this project was a great experience for me. I loved seeing how the children’s faces lit up when they saw us. It was great to see how much this affected the kids and brought joy to them during their time of suffering. This project also helped me realize the importance of giving back to my community and that any little thing can help someone who is suffering,” she said.
“The project was so heartwarming and such an amazing idea,” said Enriquez. “The fact that I can bring a smile to a child’s face who experiences such difficult issues and pushes through them every day made me feel so special.”
“Going into it, I thought it was going to make a lot of kids’ days, but coming out of it I knew that I got way more from it than them,” said Chase. “It was bright and inspiring to do something to bring more love to a dark situation. I’m so touched by those kids. I loved doing it, and I hope to do more for people in situations similar to those kids.”
Wolf said, “I would like to thank Shriners’ hospital for enabling me to meet and bring joy to their patients. They created a great environment for all of us and were so welcoming.”
Dr. Wolf said he sits on scholarship committees and gets to review the accomplishments and activities of students today. “If you got to see that instead of the police report you’d see kids in a whole different light,” he said.
“We’ve got great kids today,” he said. “It’s unbelievable what the kids are doing in these communities.”
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