Markham-Stouffville Hospital Project

Over the last few months, we have been working behind the scenes to bring our Sensory Bag Project for the Markham-Stouffville Hospital to life. Graciously funded by the Whitchurch-Stouffville Legacy Fund, we carefully curated and assembled 250 sensory bags which will play a vital role in helping neurodiverse children feel more comfortable, regulated and supported during what can often be a very stressful and overstimulating experience. The sensory bags will help Markham-Stouffville Hospital and Oak Valley Health create a more inclusive and responsive environment.

We are proud to report that all products in the sensory bag were from Canadian businesses.

Sensory Bags donated to Markham-Stouffville Hospital

The contents of the sensory bag included:

Teampro Promotions - Branded sensory bag, sensory ball, sensory stickers, stuffed monkey

Silly Squish Slime - Scented slime

Dough Perfect - Scented all natural playdough

Understanding Lenny: A Book About a Boy With Autism - Written by Natalie Abkarian Cimini (books were purchased at cost from Natalie’s author account, with no profit to the author given Natalie is the President of the charity)

Crayola Canada - Wixels and Colour and Erase Activity Book

Creative Beginning - Custom chalkboard based number and letter puzzle

FDMT - Noise cancelling headphones and Anger Management Activity Cards

A special thank you to Jeff from Canadian Tire Stouffville who donated the boxes and Mo from Home Depot Markham, who donated the delivery truck for this project.

Charity ambassadors and kidpreneurs Leo and Lorenzo helped assemble all the bags and learned many skills along the way. The charity continues to give them opportunities to practice, develop and enhance life skills that will help them in the future, but most importantly, they are learning about the importance of giving to others.

Left to right - Delaney Reid (Child Life Specialist, Markham-Stouffville Hospital), Natalie Abkarian Cimini (President, For Little Monkeys Charity), Leo & Lorenzo Cimini (Charity Ambassadors), Michael Cimini (Co-Founder, For Little Monkeys Charity) and Greg Smith (Chair, Whitchurch-Stouffville Legacy Fund)

We look forward to expanding this project idea to support more hospitals and help create more inclusive and responsive environments for families with neurodiverse children.

Lots of love,

For Little Monkeys Charity