Kids isolated by cancer or COVID-19, and their siblings, can connect live with a Camp Quality Puppet for a 10-minute online ‘playdate’ that is tailored to the child’s age and interests. Our puppeteers are terrific at improvising and adapting the playdate to suit the needs of the child – whether it’s singing to babies or cracking jokes with teenagers.
Nothing makes our puppets happier than bringing a smile to your child’s face!
Digital Puppet Playdates offer an alternative to in-person hospital puppet visits, and can reach children who are isolated at home, or on the cancer ward, due to their treatment, ongoing health concerns, or remote location.
These interactive, online moments of happiness provide fun and distraction to kids who may be feeling lonely due to health issues that separate them from school, friends or community.
Families who are registered with Camp Quality can book a Digital Puppet Playdate. The free playdates are suitable for any children up to 15 years old.
The puppets bring laughter and happiness to Gus
Video Transcript
Lindsay (00:01:03 – 00:19:01): It was school holidays and Gus just wasn’t himself. He was inside more for breaks or he had to sit down for like a breather. And then he was facetiming my mum and she just said that he looked just unwell on the camera. So take him down to Perth Children’s Hospital and to see what they would say.
Michael (00:19:01 – 00:24:16): Two doctors and a nurse come in and then gave us the news that he was diagnosed with ALL.
Lindsay (00:24:24 – 00:44:12): The first phase had chemotherapy and a really hard, harsh steroid called dexamethasone. He’s had lots of lumbar punches, lots of bone marrow lots of intrathecal. So now daily life is staying home, making sure that he’s well,
Michael (00:44:12 – 01:01:14): going to hospitals, getting needles getting treatment. And we’ve got medication that we do daily at home as well. I think mentally it’s now starting to finally get to him.
Lindsay (01:01:14 – 01:10:18): If we walk past a playground and there’s too many kids in there, we’re not able to go in trying to get him to understand that he’s not able to see his friends
Michael (01:10:18 – 01:13:01): We know that it’s also not short term.
Michael (01:13:10 – 01:18:15): This isn’t a one month treatment or two month treatment. This is something that we’re now going to have for years to come.
Michael (01:23:05 – 01:35:02): The Camp Quality puppets have been amazing with what they’ve been able to do from diagnosis, from being in the hospital they’ve been there. You instantly know they’re in the ward. We instantly hear the other kids starting to laugh.
Lindsay (01:35:02 – 01:42:08): They make it fun and light hearted. Someone else to talk to. That’s not a parent. Or a doctor or nurse, but they’re just there to have fun and play.
Lindsay (01:42:19 – 01:44:02): And that’s really, really important.
Dean (01:49:17 – 01:54:08): Hi, everyone. I’m Dean, and I’m one of the Camp Quality puppets.
Maddison (01:54:08 – 02:09:24): The Puppet Digital Playdates are a playdate that the families can access on any electronic device, whether that be at home, at hospital and in regional areas where they can have a One-On-One interaction with our puppets and have a bit of light and laughter pour into the day.
Lindsay (02:11:13 – 02:19:02): He likes to talk, and he looks to be with people all the time. So for him to have someone to talk to might just made his day
Michael (02:19:02 – 02:25:17): being live, interactive. It just gives that little bit of socialness that he needs being isolated in home.
Lindsay (02:25:17 – 02:32:04): there’s a lot of things that happen for Gus and not for Edith. So for her to then share that experience with Gus was really, really good.
Michael (02:33:22 – 02:52:23): He sees the puppets, he sees the T-shirts, and he’s instantly excited to see what’s going on, what’s going to happen, what are they going to talk to? What are they going to say? What jokes are they going to tell? What jokes he’s going to tell? I it just instantly brings happiness and laughter to him.
Lindsay (02:52:23 – 02:54:00): I cried. I cried.
Lindsay (02:54:00 – 02:56:00): So much. It made me so happy.
Michael (02:56:00 – 02:58:01): Yeah. You just see him come back to life again.
Want to know how Digital Puppet Playdates work? Hear it from the puppets themselves in this video!