On December 30, Texas Children’s patients were transported in the comfort of their rooms to the world of Encanto! The Child Life, Patient Experience and Biomed teams collaborated to make this special movie premiere a reality. Here’s how.
The idea for the event was sparked in late summer, during Pixar Week – when all of the Pixar movies are promoted as a way for fans to connect online and relive their favorites. This special week is part of Texas Children’s partnership with Starlight and Disney to televise Disney Plus content on CCTV. The three teams’ desire for our young patients to experience the excitement around newly released movies as well as regular content got them thinking about how to make that possible.
Patient and Family Services Director Katie Kalenda Daggett worked with Disney Studios to secure permission for Texas Children’s to premiere the next new Pixar movie coming out – Encanto – on the CCTV network in patient rooms. This started the ball rolling for the three teams to put together the big event! Also, “this first-time agreement with Disney to show one of the movies for a special event in addition to bedside and in activity/playrooms is something we hope to be able to do more of in the future,” said event lead, Child Life Services Gaming Activity Coordinator Marty McMahon.
The teams were innovative on how to create a community environment where each patient would have the opportunity to “be a kid” and socialize. According to McMahon, “A ton of work went into bringing this premiere to life for patients…we made a true production of everything leading up to premiere day, with songs produced by the Music Therapy team for weekly Music group, and flyers designed and printed for day-of distribution to patients with a summary about the movie and show times.”
Premiere day featured hand-delivered Encanto-themed toys and four showings throughout the day, in patient rooms, two in English and two in Spanish, with subtitles for both.
“This was a really fun day for all, and good way to connect in a collective way,” said Child Life Services Manager Kari Lown. “It was a real perk to provide real-time Disney magic in the way of this movie so that our patients could participate in one of the latest trends and all of the excitement about Encanto at the same time as their families and everyone else in the world,” she added.
