‘Very special:’ Santa, elves surprise patients at Nemours Children’s Hospital

Nemours Children’s Health hosting virtual toy drive

ORLANDO, Fla. – Kalani Tai, 6, has been at Nemours Children’s Hospital for several weeks but had a very good excuse to come out of her room on Tuesday.

“I’m drawing Santa,” Kalani said.

Santa and his elves left the North Pole and made their way to the hospital again to do some window washing and most importantly, bring cheer to several young patients.

“It is very special. We’ve been just so overwhelmed with everything since we got the news,” Jesse Tai said.

Jesse Tai is Kalani’s dad, and he said she was diagnosed with scoliosis and will have to spend Christmas at the hospital while she awaits surgery.

Window-washing elves visit the young patients at Nemours Hospital in Orlando. (Copyright 2023 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved.)

“She has a little Christmas tree in her room and we have lights and what we did was, and when we found out the news, we started decorating at Halloween so she can enjoy it a little bit more,” Tai said.

Even though Kalani won’t be able to celebrate at home, Jesse said Kalani is in great spirits, and that right there is the greatest gift of all.

“Children are so resilient and they know something that we don’t,” Tai said.

Nemours Children’s Health is hosting a virtual toy drive for patients. More information, click here.

Window-washing elves visit the young patients at Nemours Hospital in Orlando. (Copyright 2023 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved.)

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About the Author

Ezzy Castro is a multimedia journalist on News 6's morning team who has a passion for telling the stories of the people in the Central Florida community. Ezzy worked at WFOR CBS4 in South Florida and KBMT in Beaumont, Texas, where she covered Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Being from Miami, Ezzy loves Cuban coffee and croquetas!

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