16 | DECEMBER 12 • 2019 

Jews in the D

Shine Some Light

Beaumont’
s Moonbeams program uplifts the spirits
of kids in the hospital. 

ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
H

aving a seriously sick child 
is a devastating, heart-
wrenching experience. As 
Rachael Grushko of West Bloomfield 
said, “It was the worst day of my life.
”
In late December 2017, Grushko’
s 
daughter Bella, then 19 months old, 
was rushed to the emergency room at 
Beaumont Hospital Royal Oak with 
an infection-induced fever of 106 
that was shutting down her kidneys. 
They spent the next two days in the 
emergency room before being moved 
to a room in the pediatrics unit. 
“I was a complete wreck, a total 
disaster,” Grushko recalled. That 
night, she glanced out the window 
and saw many lights shining in the 
darkness. She didn’
t know what was 
happening, but it looked beautiful, so 
she picked up Bella, ignoring all the 
wires attached to her small body, and 
held her up to see.
Bella smiled for a few moments 
before falling back to sleep, but 
Rachael kept watching. “It calmed me 
down for a moment. It made me feel 
like I wasn’
t alone,
” she said.
It wasn’
t until the next day 
that Grushko discovered what it 
was: Beaumont’
s Moonbeams for 
Sweet Dreams program. During 
Moonbeams, the community rallies 
in the courtyard outside the pediatric 

unit every night at 8 p.m. during 
the month of December and waves 
flashlights at the patients to show 
they’
re not forgotten by the outside 
world.
This year, Moonbeams runs from 
now through Dec. 25. Lights shine at 
8 p.m.
According to Beaumont 
Children’
s Child Life Supervisor 
Kathleen Grobbel, the program was 
created by their Pediatric Family 
Advisory Council after a parent said 
she’
d been in the hospital with a child 
over the holidays and felt like the 
world was going on without her. “We 
thought, let’
s invite the community 
to say good night by shining lights,
” 
Grobbel said. “We figured we’
d have a 
small group; we weren’
t sure it would 
take off.
”
Instead, word spread. People loved 
being able to do something tangible 
for sick kids and their families, to 
bring a little light to their bleak 
situations. 
During 2018, more than 30,000 

TOP TO BOTTOM: Volunteers brightened the 
evening for pediatric patients at Beaumont 
Royal Oak last year. When Bella, now 4, was 
in the hospital at 19 months, her mother 
Rachael held her up to see the lights. Alexa 
and Ari Schafer.