Angelly Velasquez, 3, of Juarez, Mexico claps her hands... (Leah Hogsten/ The Salt Lake Tribune)
By Patty Henetz, The Salt Lake Tribune 12/25/2008
Santa Claus used to come to the Shriners Children's Hospital by helicopter, but that ended when neighbors complained about the noise. Ditto for the times he rode to the hospital through Federal Heights on a fire engine.
On Christmas, Santa drove himself to the hospital and sounded sleigh bells as he rode the elevator to spend the morning with three girls who had recently undergone orthopedic surgeries and couldn't spend the holiday at home.
Santa and Mrs. Santa -- on other days Ron and Cathy Mucho of Stansbury Park -- joined Shriner volunteers to give the girls dolls, sketch-pads, calendars and toys.
The bright Christmas bags seemed bottomless as Gaby Ysidro-Ambrosio and Angelly Elena Velasquez dug in to pull out Barbies, baby dolls, doll clothes and tiaras. Angelly, 3, squealed and laughed over each gift. She named her doll after herself and then called her Mia, which in Spanish means "mine." Gaby, 7, wasn't ready to name her doll, but liked the sparkly crown her mom helped put in her hair.
Gaby and Angelly both had operations to lengthen the bones in their legs. The girls and their mothers are from Mexico, where many of the young patients at the Shriners hospital in Salt Lake City come from, said Shriner Hal Martin of Al Kaleh temple. Kids from Colombia also get treatment here, he said, often to correct birth defects that may be connected with industrial pollution in their home countries.
"A lot of the children come with noarms, no legs," Martin said.
Brook Shafer, whose daughter, Kylie, 12, got a long-awaited but sudden appointment for spinal fusion surgery to straighten her back, said missing Christmas at home in Cheyenne, Wyo., was worth it.
"Otherwise, we would have had to wait a year," Shafer said, walking her daughter back to her room.
Prosthetics are built at the hospital, and special clothes are custom-made in the sewing shop organized by Ladies of the Oriental Lounge, one of the women's groups from the Al Kaleh temple, whose members come from throughout Utah.
The Shriners run 19 hospitals in North America to provide free medical care to children. While the Salt Lake City hospital specializes in orthopedics and spinal cord rehabilitation, other hospitals provide burn care and cleft lip and palate treatment and research.
Patients up to age 18 are eligible for treatment based solely on need. A family's income or insurance status do not matter. Insurance is neither needed nor accepted, said spokeswoman Melissa Phillips.
"The only cash register here is in the cafeteria," she said.
Shriners of North America members, all of whom are Freemasons, support their philanthropy by volunteering at the hospitals, helping patients' families with transportation and arranging events for the children during their stays.
Salt Lake City Shriner John Limb said raising funds for and volunteering at the hospital "is the funner side of Freemasonry."
phenetz@sltrib.com
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