Take Me Out (of the Hospital)
to the Ball Game

Late in November, just before his sixth birthday, Jordan Farrington spent several scary days in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the N.C. Children's Hospital. He had suffered a severe asthma attack. Two weeks later, he had another one and landed back in the PICU again. On a crisp January night, though, he skipped and jumped and chattered his way along a brick sidewalk on his way to the Dean Dome.

"I love the Tar Heels!" he announced. "And the Panthers." He and his family — his mother, Maria, his brothers Traymon and Tyson, and his sister, Shanne — would watch the UNC women's basketball team take down top-ranked Duke that night. Jordan would shake his blue-and-white pompom, jump in and out of his seat, and grin almost without stopping. Along with several other families, the Farringtons were guests of Carolina Dreams, a new service program created by David Werry, a junior economics and political science major.

Like many good ideas, Carolina Dreams is very simple at heart: Invite children who've been in and out of UNC Hospitals to come back to campus for something a little more fun. Carolina varsity sports teams volunteer to host the children for a meal and some social time — on Jordan's visit, the women's field hockey team dished up pre-game pizza at Kenan Field House — and then accompany the children and their families to the game.

Werry, himself a lacrosse player, wanted to find a way for athletes to give back to the University community. Service seems to run in his family. When his older brother, Scott Werry '02, was a student here, he coordinated the annual dance marathon that benefits the Children's Hospital.

"Through him, I had a close look at the great stuff happening there," David Werry said. "Being an athlete, I knew a lot about the athletic community, and I saw an underutilized resource."

He also knows what it's like to see a family member face chronic illness and a long hospitalization.

"My father just passed away this past spring," he said. "He had cancer for a long time. We'd seen what it's like to be in the hospital for a long time. We knew what it was like for a grown man to go through this. I can't even imagine what it's like for a kid to go through it."

Born and raised on a farm near Oshawa, Ontario, Werry is a Morehead Scholar. He started setting up Carolina Dreams during his freshman year. One of his first concerns was to make it easy for athletes to participate. As he knew first-hand, because of their practice schedules and road trips, athletes often have limited time available for volunteering. He met with Athletics Director Dick Baddour '66 and with Rams Club Director John Montgomery. Then he started brainstorming with Dr. Jacob Lohr '62, associate chair of the department of pediatrics and an attending physician at the Children's Hospital.

Lohr immediately saw how the idea could help children with chronic disease.

"An important element for any child like that is doing things that are fun, even exciting," he said. "That shows them there is some normalcy in their life. It makes them feel good and gives them confidence. I believe it enhances the recovery period. Also, it gives them the chance to be with one type of role model. Any successful athlete is a role model for a child.

"Another benefit is for the athletes themselves: They get to see a child who is dealing with an illness and provide a positive experience for them. This speaks in such a positive way about the athlete who has made a commitment to athletics and to academics at UNC. It's easy to get wrapped up in yourself in that setting, and instead, they're reaching out to children."

Werry eventually set up a nine-member advisory board to ensure the program continues after he graduates. Carolina Dreams offers four events each semester, and doctors and nurses at the hospital identify patients who are well enough to take part in the program. In the first semester, the program worked with 25 families, and the goal is to involve 80 families per year. In the first year, more than 120 athletes from eight teams are expected to participate. "All of them are still associated with the hospital, whether for ongoing treatment or coming back for checkups," Werry said.

Since Carolina Dreams began, Lohr has heard enthusiastic reactions from both parents and children who have taken part.

"The children remember the players they went with by their first names, remember things they did. For them, the event was fun but less important than just being with the athlete. They talk about that rather than anything they saw in the game. With the parent, it's the opposite — especially if they went to the Carolina-Miami game. But the parents love seeing their child with the athlete, seeing the athlete focus so intently on their child."

Werry is delighted with the way other student-athletes have responded to the program.

"They've been great with the kids," he said. "They're so happy to be there. I've had athletes come up to me and say, 'When can I do it again?' and teams say, 'We want to be involved in this.' That's been really great to see."

One athlete who found the experience memorable is sophomore Anna Evans, a softball player who helped host about 10 children at Carolina Dreams' first event, the Louisville football game last fall.

"We met the kids before the game, ate lunch with them, walked around Tar Heel Town, got them tattoos," she said. "We just basically got to be a little kid with them. Then we took them out to the end zone before the game, and they were recognized and introduced. They got to walk behind the bench, and they met the basketball team. It was amazing to see how their faces would light up.

"When they were recognized, some of them were shy and tried to hide behind us. They didn't believe they were up on the big screen just like the star players."

— Kathleen Kearns

Carolina Alumni Review, March-April 2005