TARA FISCHER/BAYSIDE GAZETE
Pictured, from left, are Hillary Mozeik, Executive Assistant/Donor Relations Coordinator, Jackie Shockley, AGH Thrift Shop Co-Manager, Toni Keiser, AGH Vice President of Public Relations, Don Owrey, AGH President and CEO, Charleen Kuhblank, AGH Auxiliary President and Thrift Shop Co-Manager, Laurie Ondo, President, Brooke Mulford Foundation, Amy Mulford, Brooke’s Mother and Founder, Brooke Mulford Foundation, Bud McGinnis, AGH Maintenance Mechanic, Jessica Hales, TidalHealth Foundation President and Chief Philanthropy Officer, Emily Tunis, Chairperson of the AGH Foundation, Michael Polito, AGH Plant Operations Manager, Laura Powell, AGH Community Relations Officer and Tori Mueller, TidalHealth Donor and Data Analyst.

By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

Atlantic General Hospital has opened a new toy closet for children receiving care in the facility’s emergency department and inpatient units as part of the Brooke’s Toy Closet program, an initiative inspired by a young girl’s battle with childhood cancer.

The toy closet, located in the Emergency Department at AGH, will house playthings for children admitted to and visiting the hospital.

Children will have the opportunity to pick an item from the collection to brighten up what are often stressful and scary periods.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held this week at Atlantic General, signaling the opening of the facility’s new joy-focused project.

Community members are urged to donate new toys to the supply.

The program will provide a little bit of fun to children and their families during hospital stays.

The new Berlin-based toy collection follows three others along the East Coast. The first Brooke’s Toy Closet opened in 2014 at TidalHealth Peninsula Regional in Salisbury.

The pantry was an effort spurred by the Brooke Mulford Foundation, kick-started for Brooke Mulford, a Salisbury native who, at the time of the organization’s conception, was a six-year-old girl diagnosed with neuroblastoma. The nonprofit’s goal is to raise funds for research and provide toys for children undergoing treatment, as well as offer financial assistance to Eastern Shore families with a child battling cancer.

Brooke’s own battle tragically came to an end in June of 2017. One year later, a second toy closet was opened at Virtua Hospital in Voorhees, New Jersey, according to the foundation’s website. A third was created at TidalHealth Nanticoke in Seaford, Delaware, in 2022. Now, the latest toy closet in Brooke’s honor has made its way to AGH in Berlin, following the hospital’s merger with TidalHealth this past May.

According to Brooke’s mother, Amy Mulford McGladdery, her daughter was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma, an aggressive cancer of the nervous system, in 2009 at four years old. Even at such a young age, Brooke’s passion for helping others was evident, and soon after her diagnosis, the idea for the toy closet to help other children experiencing frightening situations began to form.

“We had originally come to the hospital in Salisbury when her symptoms started, and it was before I had a smartphone or tablet or anything to entertain her, and we were there for eight hours,” McGladdery said. “And on top of being there for eight hours with no television, no toys, nothing for her to do, she also wasn’t feeling good. So you have her not feeling good, and nothing to help her feel better. A week later, we wound up at CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia). It’s a children’s hospital, so they have child life specialists coming in and doing things. Every shift, she would get a new toy that she got to keep. Probably that first week of diagnosis, she said, ‘Mom, our hospital at home needs something like this.’ They don’t have anything to do when you’re in the hospital, not even watch TV. That was how the wheels started with it.”

McGladdery’s daughter’s diagnosis yielded immense community support, and toys and gifts started to flood in, to the point that many of the items were repeats of things she already had. Brooke began setting aside some toys to donate to other children.

Brooke’s mom added that they first began giving the items to CHOP. However, Brooke was adamant that she wanted to offer these toys to TidalHealth Peninsula Regional in Salisbury, their local facility, which was lacking in children’s entertainment, to help the kids there. Brooke and her parents began saving the gifts they received, which would eventually be part of the first Brooke’s Toy Closet that opened in 2014, just a few weeks before the family moved to New Jersey to be closer to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“We were just getting ready to move, so it was kind of bittersweet, but what better way to leave our community with this gift for everything that was done for us, to be able to give something back right before we left,” McGladdery said.

AGH’s toy closet will now be the fourth along the East Coast. Discussions about the Berlin addition began leading up to and during Atlantic General’s merger with TidalHealth, as toy collection sites inspired by Brooke are currently located at two other TidalHealth hospitals.

“When the integration conversations started happening, I knew it was something we needed to do,” said Jessica Hales, the president of the TidalHealth Foundation. “I received Facebook messages from people who worked [at AGH] that said, ‘When are we getting a toy closet?’ So we reached out to Brooke’s mom, and she was over the moon to be able to extend Brooke’s vision to Atlantic General Hospital. The wheels started turning from there.”

Toni Keiser, the vice president of public relations at AGH, found closet-esq furniture at AGH’s thrift shop. The piece was then painted purple, the color associated with neuroblastoma’s ribbon, and spruced up to house the toys. The Atlantic General Hospital Foundation donated items.

As toys get taken by the kids, the idea is that the families will replenish the closet with new items. Community members are also encouraged to donate. The playthings can be taken to the hospital in person, by contacting TidalHealth Foundation at foundation@tidalhealth.org to arrange a drop-off, or shopping from the Brooke’s Toy Closet Amazon Wish List.

Hales said that the wish list is especially helpful because it’s easy, and the hospital can choose what is most needed at certain times.

“You can choose which location, and the toys will be delivered to that location. That is really convenient,” the TidalHealth Foundation president said. “And we can say what we need more of, what we need less of. Some seasons we need infant toys, some seasons we need ten-year-old boy toys.”

Those interested in donating via Amazon can visit tidalhealth.org/toycloset to find the link for the wish list.

Hospital officials are ecstatic about what the closet will bring to the facility’s young visitors.

“It is a really great way to be able to support the people that need support,” said AGH Foundation Chair Emily Tunis. “So much of the foundation participated in this project, and it makes everyone really happy to know that it is going to help the patients, and it is going to go to good use.”

Donald Owrey, president of Atlantic General Hospital, added that the healthcare institution is grateful to be able to honor Brooke.

“The whole thing is incredibly inspiring, for this young girl who went through a real ordeal herself, but through that, really felt that she could help others feel some sense of joy, peace, and take their mind off what they might be going through,” he said. “We’re here to take care of folks, and people come here every day, and sometimes they’re in their darkest hour. Especially if they’re a child. To be able to … bring some normalcy to what’s not normal is good. It helps us to stay grounded. It’s people caring for people.

“That’s what healthcare is. At the end of the day, it’s one human caring for another. That comes in many different forms, and this is just another example of someone caring for someone else. Bringing in a toy that they may not ever know who will be the beneficiary of, but it is going to have an effect. It’s very moving.”

Brooke’s mom said that she is grateful to be able to bring the toy project to another area, continuing her daughter’s legacy of optimism and joy.

“It was so funny, she had no fear,” McGladdery said. “For her to get up and do something like this, she would be like, ‘bring it on!’ She was amazing … We would be out, just having dinner somewhere, and people would come up, like a waitress would say, ‘I didn’t want to come to work today. I was in a miserable mood, but the first table is your daughter sitting there with the biggest smile on her face, and she is clearly going through way more than I could possibly even imagine, and there she was with a smile, and I’m complaining about my petty things.’

“You couldn’t help but fall in love with her. It just puts a lot of things in your own life in perspective, seeing Brooke and how she carried herself through her journey…I know she would be thrilled to know that there is now a toy closet in Berlin, too. What started as this one little idea has helped thousands of kids.”

In addition to donating new toys, community members may also make a financial contribution by visiting tidalhealth.org/donate and selecting Brooke’s Toy Closet as the designation. Furthermore, checks can be mailed to TidalHealth Foundation, 100 E. Carroll Street, Salisbury, Md. 21801.

AGH’s Brooke’s Toy Closet marks the fourth of its kind in total, and the third in TidalHealth locations.