Music is crucial to our lives and well-being.

Research suggests that not only does music aid in promoting health and brain development in babies and young children through sensory simulation, but it also provides an opportunity for parents to bond with their children. When children are confined to hospital settings for extended periods of time, music therapy has been found to improve their mental health and wellbeing by providing developmentally supportive care. This care helps to counter the painful procedures, disruptive lights and sounds and other noxious stimuli to which hospitalized children are exposed.

Unfortunately, not all children’s hospitals in Canada have music therapy programs. And for those that do, they sometimes have as little as 5 hours worth of funding per week to provide for all of the hospital inpatients. Despite the researched importance of providing this sort of stimulation and engagement for healing children, when hospitals are faced with the task of reducing costs, music therapy is often one of the first services to be cut. With the help of outside funding and donations, the music therapy programs can grow and reach more children in need of this extremely, beneficial service.

The Zoey Cares Foundation is committed to raising funds in order to provide the money to support and grow music therapy programs throughout the children’s hospitals across Canada. Named after our daughter, Zoey Nicolette D’Ippolito, we saw first hand the difference music can make. An inpatient for 10 out of the 11.5 months of her life, the 10 minutes of music therapy she received (twice per week) were the highlight of her day. It brought her joy and happiness, during a life filled with hospital tests, procedures and uncertainty.

The Zoey Cares Foundation is 100% volunteer based in order to allow the maximum amount from each donation to go to where it is meant: to help heal the warrior children who could use a little song to brighten an otherwise challenging time.