For the 34th year, Dallas Cowboys players and cheerleaders took part in their holiday tradition of visiting children in local hospitals throughout North Texas on Monday.
They split into four groups and visited Children’s Medical Center, Medical City Children’s Hospital, Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas, as well as Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth. They came dressed in their jerseys and holiday garb, giving out mini footballs and gift bags from the Cowboys organization and spreading holiday cheer by spending time with the patients.
“Being here in the hospital is extremely difficult, so having special visitors to come make things just a little bit easier and take a little bit of a load off is really special to them,” Samantha Kleiman, a certified child life specialist at Medical City Dallas, told Fox 4 KDFW. “Immediately they enter that room, and a giant smile is put on their faces, lighting up the entire room. And it becomes contagious, and it just changes the entire morale of not only that individual patient’s room but then that unit, and then it spreads throughout the hospital as a whole.”
The Cowboys are in the midst of a competitive race for first place in the NFC East with the Philadelphia Eagles, who come to town for their second matchup with Dallas this weekend. Still, the team is finding ways to continue its annual traditions and bring smiles and joy to those who need it.
“We’re in December football,” wide receiver Michael Gallup told The Dallas Morning News. “Everybody knows that. This is crunch time. At the same time, you’ve got to be able to give back. These kids give us more joy than they even know, coming in there giving us high fives, telling us about what they’re going through, what they have going on. We enjoy it.”