The project “The other side of the t-shirt”, proposed by Rotary Club – Palermo Baia Dei Fenici, in collaboration with Palermo F.C. and Hospital Center ARNAS Civico, is a go.
What once was the t-shirt of Santana or Crivello, today is the scrub for a young patient at the Children’s Hospital. This way, tenths of Palermo t-shirts are transformed into ward garments for the hospitalized children with different illnesses at the pediatric Hospital “Di Cristina”. The project “The other side of the t-shirt”, proposed by Rotary Club – Palermo Baia Dei Fenici, in collaboration with Palermo FC and Hospital Center ARNAS Civico – Di Cristina – Benfratelli, has just started at the Palermitan Hospital.
The official team’s t-shirts became, with some minor sartorial modifications, hospital scrubs and robes for the young patients, who will wear them in times when they must undergo diagnosis or, in other cases, surgery. A simple gesture, but a big one for the children who live, in first person, the suffering of being ill, and for the families who share the burden each day.
The objective, in fact, is to lighten as much as possible the emotional weight of the time spent at the hospital, transforming the everyday life at the hospital into a moment of leisure, entertainment, and pride. Wearing the t-shirt of the heart’s team can make young patients happier, reduce stress in hospital environments, and eventually reduce hospitalization, because it can improve the mood, immune system, and recovery time.
“In addition to being a solidary initiative in favor of young patients and their families, ‘The other side of the t-shirt’ also wants to be a popularized action of sports values in general, with the ambition and objective of creating a bridge which unites the sports life of the city’s team, inside and outside of the pediatric health ward. Another piece of the service road we are trying to fulfill with other activities in favor of the Palermitan Hospital”, said Grazia Vella, from Rotary Club Palermo Baia Dei Fenici.
“The football team is an institution for the city and is because of this that we feel the responsibility of contributing to the creation of valor for the entire community, with more reason if we have the possibility to put a smile on children’s faces. For them, football players are heroes and role models. We always have to live up to these expectations. Because of this, in front of these righteous initiatives, we are present today, and will always be”, said Rinaldo Sagramola, Palermo’s AD.
The collaboration, in fact, was ratified in the past few days by a meeting with Grazia Vella (President a.r. 2020/2021) and Giuseppe Chiarello (President of Rotary Club Palermo Baia Dei Fenici 2019/2020), Rinaldo Sagramola, and the representatives of the hospital center ARNAS Civil Hospital Di Cristina Benfratelli of Palermo: Roberto Colletti (General Manager) and Marilù Furnari (Medical Officer of the Pediatric Ward)
One hundred masks were kindly donated for the occasion by Gaspare Muratore’s Coppe Center, to whom we also thank for the logo’s print on the scrub-transformed t-shirts. Thanks also to Francesco Zambito, owner of the company Sailor Italia, for the sartorial transformation of the t-shirts, and Giovanni Puleo, owner of the Cinzia dry-cleaning, for the sanitization of the t-shirts transformed into scrubs.