HALIFAX—When little Hailey Powell asked if she could take not one, but two handmade finger puppets from a basket at the IWK Health Centre’s welcome desk, a hospital employee enthused, “Yes, please!”

There are plenty more where those came from. The women and children’s hospital in the south end of Halifax has been accepting knitted, crocheted, and sewn finger puppets for at least 20 years, said Kylene Mellor, the IWK’s manager of volunteer resources. A couple of years ago, the hospital was running low and asked for more — and now it has so many, Mellor said, that it’s running out of places to store them.

The little toys offer distraction and comfort to patients while they’re undergoing medical procedures or whiling away time in clinics or hospital beds. They are offered to family members and visitors, too — anyone who might need some soothing or cheering up.

Back in September 2016, the hospital was facing a finger-puppet shortage. The IWK put a call out on Facebook for volunteers to replenish its stock. And the response, Mellor said, was astounding. The post has been shared more than 12,000 times, and today her hands (and fingers) are full.

The trove of finger puppets is kept in huge plastic bags in a storage room at the IWK. From there, Mellor and other staff stock baskets at each of the hospital’s three entrances, in its clinics and labs, and in the emergency department.

Patients and families can dig through the assortment and choose puppets that suit them — a simple act Mellor said can be very powerful for those facing major personal challenges.

“Oftentimes people don’t have choice (about) why they’re coming to the hospital,” she said. “But in this small thing, they can look in a bucket and take whichever one appeals to them. So it’s a lot about that empowerment and that choice.”

She added the puppets’ positive impact ripples out. The smiles and sense of calm the toys bring to kids extends to their parents and guardians, and reducing stress is a boon for patient health.

A year after asking for help, the IWK had to update its post to staunch the huge influx of donations.

“Thanks to the amazing generosity of the knitters in our community, we currently have quite a good supply on hand; therefore, we will not be needing any more finger puppets in the near future,” the post reads.

Mellor said the hospital goes through about 1,000 finger puppets each month, and she estimates they have about 75,000 on hand at the moment, in addition to 3,000 comfort dolls, 4,000 baby hats, 1,000 pillow cases, and “a ton” of quilts — all donated by volunteers.

Many of those volunteers — Mellor said she has about 1,200 total donors — have some connection with the IWK. They are current and former patients, or they know or love someone who is a current or former patient. Donations come in daily from all over North America and Europe.

One mother of an IWK patient, Amy LaPointe Morais of Belledune, N.B., started a Facebook group called “Finger Puppets for IWK” to communicate with other generous crafters. More than 3,000 people follow the page.

In the page description, Morais said her 15-year-old daughter Melody first became an IWK patient as a premature infant. Melody needed to return to the IWK again starting at age six to receive treatment for juvenile dermatomyositis, a rare inflammatory disease, and rheumatoid arthritis. She has continued to be treated there for the last nine years. Morais said Melody has gotten a finger puppet with every test or procedure, and has amassed an impressive collection.

Now Morais, her mother and Melody all knit puppets, dolls, and hats to give back to the IWK, and they organize drop-off locations around Atlantic Canada for other donors.

Mellor said she appreciates the time, energy, and generosity of all the volunteers, and she doesn’t want to discourage anyone from contributing to the finger puppet program. That said, she suggests calling to check on the hospital’s need before sending donations.

Morais heeds Mellor’s advice. She checks in with the hospital and shares updates on the Facebook page. In March of this year, she told her followers to hold off on sending their creations to the hospital.

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“Feel free to keep knitting, sewing, crochet ... whatever it is that you do, but hold onto it until it is needed once again. They have only so much space and it’s filling up fast.”

She added she would accept and store puppets at her home until the hospital has room again.

Mellor said the hospital is trying to keep up with the generosity of the community by handing out the puppets at every opportunity. It isn’t an unpleasant mission, since the free toys bring an “instant smile” to kids’ faces, she said.

That was certainly the case for Hailey, who beamed as she picked a butterfly and a flower, both sewn of felt and embroidered with smiles of their own.

Gleefully choosing the puppets and putting them on her fingers was the last thing she did before her dad scooped her up on their way out the hospital doors.

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