April 14, 2006

Washington, D.C. - On a bright, sunny day in the Nation's Capital, the Georgetown University men's lacrosse team was able to make the day a bit brighter for kids in Georgetown Hospital.

Members of the No. 2-ranked Hoya team visited the Concentrated Care Center of the Georgetown University Hospital Thursday, spending the afternoon with child patients. Doing anything from Easter egg hunting and cookie decorating to arts and crafts and face-painting, the team offered children a day of enjoyment, just days before the Easter Holiday.

"It was a good visit," junior middie Dave Bauer (Red Bank, N.J./The Peddie School), who coordinated the visit. "The kids got something out of it and we definitely got something out of it. It's just nice seeing those kids with smiles on their faces."

The Concentrated Care Center offers highly specialized intensive care and extensive patient monitoring systems for the acutely ill. Although the children often require care for extended periods of time and repeated visits, their spirits remain high, thanks in no small part to the Georgetown University lacrosse team and other like-minded philanthropic souls.

This wasn't the first time the lacrosse team had made a visit to the unit, but just like the apprehension that comes before a game, there's always a nervous feeling before going to the hospital.

"I was nervous and I think a lot of the guys were," junior face-off specialist Christiaan Trunz (Manhasset, N.Y./Chaminade) said. "It's a hospital and just like anyone, you always get an uncomfortable feeling, you don't know what to expect, you don't know what you're going to say and how they are going to receive you. What gets me is seeing the people who are there."

For the Hoyas, the people they visited were young children, some as young as four-years-old. About 40 members of the Georgetown team took advantage of a free day from school to take part, with four groups of 10 splitting time. They were scheduled to spend an hour there, but in some cases, they would spend nearly two hours there.

"We sat with these kids and just hung out," Trunz said. "You really get a chance to see how fortunate you are, especially being at Georgetown and playing lacrosse. For a lot of guys, we're crying about running a mile and these kids are in the hospital."

For Trunz, a visit to the hospital has special meaning. Trunz lost his mother, Geraldine, to ovarian cancer earlier this year. "It was tough, it was tough personally for me," Trunz said. "I have a really soft spot for kids. That's why, for me, I take the chance (to visit) right away. For a lot of guys, this puts things face-to-face. You can hear about these diseases, but you can't really know it until you see it. It was a great experience."

Several of his teammates agreed. Graduate students Dave Paolisso (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial) and Mike White (Westwood, Mass./St. Sebastian's) spent the first semester of the 2005-06 season serving internships in the area before coming back to the team for the Spring. They said last week that the experience of working made going back to practice and games that much easier. The visit to the hospital put things in a broader perspective. "It's tough to see kids like that, especially that young," Paolisso said. "You see what they are going through on a day-to-day basis and knowing that a simple visit can make their day really makes it worthwhile."

White was among several team members who sat in rooms with kids who could not leave their beds. Some kids were sleeping, and the players would sit and wait for them to wake up. "I was surprised," White said. "They were just so excited. They loved the attention. (Junior) Garret Wilson (Ardmore, Pa./Episcopal Academy) and I were in a room with one little girl and we just sat and played Connect-4 and talked, asking what shows they watched, just what they like to do. They were really responsive and it was just a really fun afternoon."

It's an afternoon that many of them hope to repeat. The team has done these visits over the course of the last few years - first starting under the coordination of former All-American Kyle Sweeney - but all said they hope to see it happen on a more frequent basis.

"Those kids were just awesome," Trunz said. "It was just such a great experience. The courage you see is huge. It certainly makes everyone's day that much brighter."