At Children’s Hospital, a Note with Lunch
Patients at Children’s Hospital of Alabama now get a little extra pick-me-up. Every day, kids there receive a note with their lunches. These notes are called napkinisms. The project sprung from a local writer, who spent years writing lunchbox notes for his own children.
Just about every morning, Billy Ivey hand-writes a note for each one of his five kids. Using a Sharpie, he scribbles down a witty joke or a simple “I love you” on a paper towel. Then he adds it to their school lunch. Ivey’s been doing that for over a decade.
“Couple years ago,” Ivey says. “I wrote a note that I thought was particularly funny and I took a picture of it.”
Billy Ivey
For over a decade, Billy Ivey has been hand-writing notes for his kids’ lunches.
Ivey posted the picture to social media.
“It said, ‘Remember, every time you smile, a mean kid gets diarrhea.’ And people, again, people couldn’t believe that I would write something like that to my kid, but the purpose of it was to make my kids laugh, to surprise them with something in the middle of their day.”
That idea resonated with people. Ivey started calling the notes “napkinisms.” He created a website and has a dedicated following on social media. Starting this year, kids at Children’s Hospital of Alabama are getting their own napkinisms. Every day, patients receive one of Ivey’s notes, printed onto postcards and passed out at lunchtime.
Six-year-old patient Blaklee Tew enjoys it. He picks up one of the napkinisms and reads it aloud.
“Potato chips are vegetables,” Tew reads. “Just go with it.”
Tew laughs, because he says potato chips do not count as vegetables.
Garland Stansell, head of communications for Children’s Hospital, helped launch the napkinisms partnership. He says the idea is simple.
“That somebody wrote a personal message, somebody’s thinking about you,” Stansell says. “Somebody cares that you’re here.”
And it never hurts to make a patient smile. Stansell says napkinisms is set to continue indefinitely, with plans to give staff the opportunity to write their own notes for the kids.
Outside of the hospital, anyone can join in and submit an idea on the napkinisms website. Billy Ivey says just a few words can go a long way.
“That’s where the power of this comes, you know,” Ivey says. “It’s not my responsibility to change the world or change somebody’s life, but I do have an opportunity to change somebody’s day, on a daily basis.”
Ivey says since starting the program at Children’s Hospital, there’s been an increase in public submissions on the napkinisms website. He says some of those notes may eventually wind up on patient lunch trays.
Legal experts say pulling Jimmy Kimmel from air may amount to illegal ‘jawboning’
Free speech scholars say ABC's decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show indefinitely represents "jawboning," when government officials pressure private companies to suppress speech.
Trump administration rushes to rent space for immigration officers conducting raids
Employees at the General Services Administration are scrambling to lease offices to accommodate a rapid increase of immigration enforcement officers carrying out widespread raids across the country.
FTC sues Live Nation and Ticketmaster alleging illegal resale tactics
The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, on Thursday, alleging that the company willingly misleads consumers about ticket prices and cooperates with scalpers to markup resale prices.
Bad Bunny skipped touring the states. Will other performers follow suit?
Artists from abroad are worried that the current climate is making American tours not worth the time and effort.
Trump suggests U.S. troops could return to Afghan base over China concerns
Trump floated the idea during a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he wrapped up a state visit to the U.K. and tied it to the need for the U.S. to counter its top rival, China.
CDC’s new advisers debate changing guidance on childhood vaccines
The group was chosen by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. amid controversy over their credentials. It's considering making changes to the MMRV vaccine guidance among others.
