Submitted photo Elkins Rotarians delivered Jared Boxes to Vandalia Davis Medical Center. Shown are, from left, Elkins Rotary President Phillips Kolsun, Valerie Bright, Coordinator of Volunteer Services with Davis Health System, Davis Health System Foundation Coordinator and Elkins Rotarian Chrissy Hall, and Rotarians Karen Wilmoth and Kenny George.

ELKINS – The Rotary Club of Elkins packed 90 Jared Boxes for use at Vandalia Health Davis Medical Center for pediatric patients.

The project is named in memory of Jared McMullen, a 5-year-old cancer patient at Geisinger Medical Center in State College, Pennsylvania. When McMullen went for treatment, he always took a backpack filled with games, toys and activities to help pass the time. After his passing, McMullen’s schoolmates initiated a project to provide similar items to other children at Geisinger Medical Center.

The Jared Box provides small gifts, toys, crayons, coloring books and activities to help calm and entertain younger patients who visit a hospital’s emergency department, either because they themselves are injured or sick or an adult they are with must visit the emergency department.

Day surgery patients are also provided with Jared Boxes to help calm them and pass the time while waiting for their procedure. Since its inception, over a million boxes have been given away at over 500 hospitals.

Elkins Rotary provided these boxes thanks to a matching grant received from Rotary District 7545. The district grant provided $1,000 with Elkins Rotary providing a matching amount. Elkins Rotarians shopped for the boxes themselves along with the contents – dolls, games, matchbox cars, temporary tattoos and more. Members of the club then packed the boxes during a regular Monday meeting.

The boxes have been delivered to Valerie Bright, Coordinator of Volunteer Services with Davis Health System, and will be distributed over the coming months.

“We are incredibly grateful to receive these thoughtful gifts from Elkins Rotary. Each Jared box is a reminder to our pediatric patients that they are cared for, supported, and never alone during their hospital stay,” said Bright.

Additional local partners for the Jared Box Project in Elkins are the GFWC Woman’s Club of Elkins, West Virginia Rhododendron Girls’ State and the First Baptist Church of Elkins.

To make a donation to the Davis Health System Foundation for the Jared Box project or any of the foundation’s other patient-centered projects, contact Bright at Valerie.Bright@VandaliaHealth.org or at 304.704.8862. Additional information about Jared Boxes can also be found at www.thejaredbox.com.

Rotary is a global network of 1.4 million neighbors, friends, leaders and problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in their communities, and in themselves.

Visit www.Rotary.org to learn more about Rotary International, visit the club’s Facebook page – Rotary Club of Elkins – or contact 2025-2026 club president Phillips Kolsun at phillipskolsun@gmail.com for more information about the Rotary Club of Elkins.