2007 Press Releases

Saint Barnabas Valerie Fund Patients Participate In Mobile New York City Public Art Project “Garden In Transit”

Livingston, N.J.– Young patients at The Valerie Fund Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Saint Barnabas Medical Center will contribute their artistic talents to the New York City public art project “Garden in Transit.” On Monday, July 2, the children will come to the Medical Center and paint vibrant flowers -- symbolizing joy, life, beauty, and inspiration -- on adhesive weatherproof panels that will be applied to the hoods, trunks and roofs of thousands of New York City taxis from September to December this year.

The yellow taxicabs will carry their large, colorful flower decals as a traveling art exhibition in connection with the "Taxi 07" celebration of the 100th anniversary of New York's first metered taxi. The project is the brainchild of Portraits of Hope, a non-profit program that conceives and develops one-of-a-kind creative therapy, educational, artistic projects that transform public environments.

“Portraits of Hope is giving our Valerie Fund Children’s Center patients a chance to experience the healing power of art,” says Peri Kamalakar, M.D., Medical Director of the Valerie Fund Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Saint Barnabas Medical Center. “It is a wonderful opportunity for them to join with siblings and family members to create a work of art that will be celebrated throughout New York City.”

The project, for both patients and their siblings, will be held from 11:30-2:30 pm in the Islami Auditorium at Saint Barnabas Medical Center.

All supplies will be provided by Portraits of Hope, a program aimed at brightening and enriching the lives of children and adults who are coping with adversity, hardship, emotional or physical trauma, or serious illness - through their participation in creative, high-profile projects. Ed Massey and Bernie Massey founded Portraits of Hope (www.portraitsofhope.org), in 1995, continuing their utilization of art and poignant visual imagery for large-scale projects of social consequence.

As part of this groundbreaking motivational art, education, and creative therapy project, thousands of kids in schools, hospitals, and community institutions are painting flowers for this exhibit-on-wheels. And thousands of adults are volunteering to lend a hand for what Mayor Bloomberg describes as a "mammoth, once-in-a-lifetime effort." Beginning in September 2007 and until year's end, New York City will be visually transformed, as the ubiquitous yellow icon becomes a mobile artistic canvas.

About The Valerie Fund at Saint Barnabas
The Saint Barnabas Health Care System has three hospitals in New Jersey that are part of the Valerie Fund, one of the largest and most advanced pediatric oncology/hematology networks in the country. Because the centers are outpatient facilities located near their homes, youngsters are able to receive treatment without having to greatly alter their normal routines. Young patients receive the most advanced range of diagnostic and therapeutic treatment services from an expert team of specialists, including pediatric hematologists/oncologists, surgeons, radiologists, nurses, social workers, counselors and child life specialists.

You can reach an attending pediatric hematologist/ oncologist 24 hours a day for referrals at The Valerie Fund Children’s Center at Saint Barnabas, (973) 322-2800; at the Children’s Hospital of New Jersey at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, (973) 926-7161 and at the Children’s Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center, (732) 923-7455.

Date: June 26, 2007

CONTACT: BETH SALAMON (973) 322-4926

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