(Gyca e Carol / shutterstock.com)
Jason Haney is a construction worker from Indiana. When he began his current job as foreman on a site opposite a children’s hospital, this awesome dad and hobby artist had a brilliant idea.
Haney noticed that many of the sick kids at the Memorial Children’s Hospital in South Bend could not go outside, and his construction site was the only view from their hospital rooms. So together with his teenage daughter, Haney built a 2.5 meter (8 foot) tall plywood cutout of Waldo from the famous Where’s Waldo? books.
Every day, the workers hide Waldo in a different spot on the construction site, giving the children a new challenge. As soon as Haney finds out that the kids have found Waldo, the cutout gets moved to a new secret hiding spot and the game begins again.
Heidi Prescott, a spokeswoman for Beacon Health System, which runs the hospital, said the project began one winter when the workers put up an inflatable snowman for the children. The kids loved the idea and from there it quickly developed into the Waldo cutout.
"It didn't take long to catch on, the kids whether they are in the rooms or in a play area, they look across as soon as they get to the window," Prescott told ABC News. "They will look all over the building, point and exclaim 'I found him!'"
Haney, meanwhile, simply enjoys knowing that he can brighten the children’s day and make them forget that they are in hospital for a few minutes. "Jason has said over and over again 'all I did this for was to make the kids smile'."
Haney even created a Facebook group where he leaves hints as to where Waldo might be hiding and the children can post photos of their findings. Haney and his daughter are already working on another project and soon the children will be able to look for a group of four plywood construction Minions from the movie Despicable Me.
The project has been a huge success, with hundreds of people sharing photos of Waldo and happy parents thanking Haney for making an otherwise difficult visit to the hospital just that little bit more enjoyable.
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