Children’s hospital patients planting vegetables

SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) — A local children’s hospital has found a new way to bring smiles to the faces of young patients.

Sadie Lamers moved into Sanford Children’s Hospital today for her acute lymphoblastic leukemia treatment.

“He’s done with chemotherapy, but he’s still here for regular visits.” You know, once a month, he’s going to have surgery next month to actually remove the cord that he put in for, you know, the infusion treatment,” said Natalie Lamers.

After her inspection, Sadie had the chance to help plant vegetables in the new flower bed in the Billion Pavilion. She is the first patient to do so.

“Our teaching garden beds and they’ve been designed and specifically designed to be wheelchair accessible in there and an irrigation system that’s going to be amazing,” said Cindy Heidelberger, “I want this to be a place where they can come and breathe and they can put their hands in the soil and they can understand where the growth is, who they are connected to, and that there is hope.”

Later in the summer, Groundworks Connect will return to the Pavilion to check on progress.

“Agriculture is the number one industry in South Dakota. So we hope that if they have to be like that in the hospital, they will learn how to grow vegetable oils so that in the future,” said Steve Sikorski.

And just like the vegetables Sadie helped plant today, the collaboration between Sanford and Groundworks Connect is growing.

“I used to be a chaplain here and every time I pass by I think, what? What can we do to address some of the needs and bring nature, bring land, bring growth to a place that sometimes is not the happiest place to be,” Heidelberger said.

This was not Sadie’s first experience with gardening. She likes to grow cucumbers and other vegetables with her grandmother.