A safe space for kids: Play Zone opens at Diamond Children's

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Diamond Children’s Medical Center unveiled its brand new Play Zone Tuesday morning. It’s a 7,200-square-foot area for hospitalized children to engage in therapeutic play.

It's a haven where kids can truly be kids, enjoying playtime and spending time with their families outside of the hospital room.

The play zone provides a distraction for young patients like 14-year-old Jeremiah Boccardo. His dad, Steve, says Jeremiah was very active in sports before his cancer diagnosis last year.

“We think it’ll help a lot of kids to just take their mind off what’s going bad, to think about something positive and just have a little normalcy in their life," said Boccardo.

The Play Zone includes an art studio, sensory room, VR gaming area, and more.

Jeremiah shares what he’s most excited about.

“Basketball and the Xbox!" Boccardo said.

Hadley Trull, associate director of Diamond Children’s Child Life Department says the space was intentionally created to help kids feel like they aren’t in a hospital to give them the break they deserve.

“Having natural light be available is huge for a lot of our kiddos and actually stepping away from all of the beeping that's on the units with the monitors on the IV pole," Trull said.

Creating this space was a community effort, hundreds of donors and companies contributed to the play zone.

“400 donors gave to this space. It wasn’t five big families, it wasn’t five foundations. 400 people," said Jeremy Sharpe, Banner Health Foundation board member.

Later this month, Diamond Children’s will host their first ever “Winter Wonderland Holiday Shop”.

“We’ll essentially create a Toys R Us experience and invite the caregivers to come down and shop for their patients and siblings. Whatever holidays they celebrate, we honor that," Trull said.