Have a coffee on ice and you’ll do something nice for patients at YNHCH

Donovan Clingan of the NCAA champions UConn Huskies men’s basketball team visited patients and families at YNHCH on April 25.

May 23 is Dunkin’ Iced Coffee Day, when $1 from every iced coffee sold at Dunkin’ helps support programs for hospitalized children and their families, including here at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital. 

With proceeds from Iced Coffee Day last year, the Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation awarded YNHCH a $50,000 grant to expand its art and music therapy programs throughout the Children’s Hospital. 

Creative art therapists work with children individually at the bedside and in groups. Using music, writing and different forms of visual art, they help children express themselves and cope with hospitalization, illness and injury. Families participate and are able to see their children engaged in fun and healing activities. 

Working with the Pediatric Intensive Care and Neonatal Intensive Care teams, the music therapist also helps families cope with loss. The therapist can record a child’s heartbeat and combine it with a favorite song to create a lasting memory for the family to keep.

With help from the Dunkin’ grant, YNHCH also brought in an artist who specializes in poetry and rap. The artist worked with teens who are hospitalized with behavioral health issues, providing an essential component of the teens’ therapeutic programming and helping the medical team gain insight into patients’ thoughts and feelings.

To build momentum for Dunkin’s Iced Coffee Day, Donovan Clingan, a forward with the NCAA champion UConn Huskies men’s basketball team, visited YNHCH on April 25 to hand out autographed souvenirs and visit with patients and their families. On April 25, Dunkin’ brought trucks to both Yale New Haven Hospital campuses to supply free coffee, munchkins and other treats for our employees.