To reach LVH-Muhlenberg Hospital's Pediatric Cancer Clinic, take the purple elevator to the third floor. Walk past the giant Calder hooked rug hanging on the wall, through the doors and prepare for a visual assault of color.

Much of the color present in the clinic - decorated T-shirts hanging from one end of the clinic to the other, a tangle of bright yarns piled on a little round table, bins of fluorescent and wooden beads-comes courtesy of Katie Meadows, the artist-in-residence who works with patients receiving treatment.

The idea for this program germinated with Rose Schneck, a social worker in the clinic. Schneck talked to Dr. Phillip Monteleone, a pediatric oncologist, who wrote the grant requesting funds to start the program.

"We have a lot of kids coming through here and for them, doing just a little bit of art takes their minds off their visit for a while," Schneck said. "When they go back for treatment or a procedure, they're more relaxed and more accepting of what's going to happen."

The hospital received a $15,000 grant from the Livestrong Foundation's Creative Center Hospital Artist-in-Residence Program for start-up costs. The yearlong grant allows Meadows, a graduate of Marywood with a master of arts in art therapy, to work with two to six patients during each three-hour block, three times per week.

"By contacting somebody like Katie, who already knows how to incorporate therapy with art, it's just a great combination," Schneck said.

Program benefits

The benefits for the kids are huge, Schneck explained. The program provides something young patients use to take their mind off what's happening to them. It's nice for them to be with other kids and doing art together.

"I come up with different ideas for children who are inpatients or visiting the clinic as an outpatient for treatment," Meadows said. "Last week was national T-shirt week. Earlier, we made healing bowls where you use a balloon in a bucket, pour plaster of paris over top, let it dry, and then you can write messages on it.

"They like to create art they can take with them," Meadows continued. "The girls like to make bracelets for their friends. Around the holidays, many asked to make art to give to their parents and families.

"The kids are just so welcoming. For myself, it's something that I really like to do, getting up coming in and helping these kids. It's a perfect opportunity.

The grant pays for nine hours of art therapy a week, Meadows explained, although she and everyone else involved wish she could spend more time with the children.

Positve feedback

"Parents love it," Meadows said. "They wish I were around more because they see what the program does for their children.

"Parents and kids appreciate that they're talking to or working with someone who's not a doctor or nurse," she said.

A visit to the program found young artists busy creating dream catchers while receiving chemotherapy.

Makayla Duda was starting round two of her fight against rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer of connective tissues.

Her entire concentration focused on wrapping bright yarn around her hoop and picking the perfect beads to decorate her dream catcher.

"It hangs above my bed and catches the good dreams and holds them," she said.

Tyler Santiago, lounging comfortably in a recliner, wrapped orange yarn around and around his hoop, was preparing to start maintenance chemo for his acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

"I like making things and laughing and the company when I'm here for therapy," he said. "The art things we do make kids feel comfy. It's nice seeing people besides the doctors."

Cassie Lamberty, Tyler's mother, praised the artist-in-residence program.

"It takes the kids' minds of their sickness, makes them feel comfortable," she said. " It's just fun."

"Katie makes Tyler smile. She's our hero," Lamberty said. "It would be so, so sad if the funding for this arts program can't continue."

Funding for the program ends this fall.

"We're hoping for another grant to continue the program," Dr. Phillip Monteleone said. "The hospital can't afford to fund the program right now, but I'm hoping that if we get it going with grants, the hospital will be able to continue funding in the future. But money is scarce for everything, so we have to think outside the box and get more community support."

Program's effect

Monteleone (Dr. Phil to his patients) emphasized the importance of the program to helping kids through their ordeals.

"Artwork is a way for kids to release some of the stress, and it's one of the things we can do to make things easier for the kids and their families, who are really stressed out emotionally and psychologically," he said.

"We are invested in helping kids to be 'more normal' and the art therapy helps," Montelleone said. "Kids don't always have ways to deal with treatment-related stress, or express it at home, or they don't want to get their parents worried, so they often internalize a lot of it, and the art therapy is one way for them to express themselves.

"You can see what Katie does and how the kids do so much better, coming in here anxious but knowing they have an art project to look forward to, especially the teenagers, who are the ones who often times are more analytical and get more anxious when they come in. She's worked with them really well and you can see the changes they've had.

"It's been amazing," he added.

Seeking funds

"For most of our patients, the cure rate is more than 70 percent across the board, and for a lot of the cancers, the cure rate is more than 85 percent," Montelleone said. "When we get through with the treatment, we want the patient to be a normal kid and be healthy psychologically as well as physically. We're dealing with both sides at the same time."

The Artist-in-Residence program provides yet one more effective tool for the doctors to help their patients' overall health. Now, the trick is finding additional funding to keep the program alive and growing, and sharing its successes with the larger community.

"We're getting the word out when our families talk to other people and when the hospital promotes this inc redibly important program," Monteleone said. "It makes such a big difference to the kids in how they handle getting through six months, a year, three years of chemotherapy."