SF 49ers deliver hope to young patients at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara

When he heard that “Basket of Hope” friends were coming to visit, 10-year-old cancer patient Jonathan Perlin thought he would receive a gift basket filled with toys and games recently.
He did, in addition to an unexpected gift: shooting hoops with San Francisco 49er’s safety Eric Reid on the play deck of the Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara advanced care pediatric unit.
The gift baskets were from Basket of Hope, a St. Louis non-profit group dedicated to raising spirits of children hospitalized with cancer and other serious illnesses. And Reid, along with some of his team colleagues were lined up to deliver the baskets to the Kaiser Permanente pediatric unit.
“We work with a lot of the sports teams, “said Angela Brunette, the founder of Basket of Hope. She started the program after her own 6-year-old daughter was diagnosed with spinal cancer. Fortunately, the tumor shrunk and completely disappeared.
That was 1995. Since then, the organization founded by Brunette has provided thousands of baskets along with parent hope tote bags. The bags and baskets are filled with donated age-appropriate games and gifts. Basket of Hope has delivered nationwide to hospitalized children and their parents, who often spend long hours and days with their children.
“It’s important for them to know God loves them,” says Brunette. Hundreds of Bay Area volunteers were enlisted to fill and wrap the baskets and the “hope totes” for parents at a Santa Rosa Church. The group then dropped them off at Kaiser Permanente Hospitals in Oakland, Roseville, and Santa Clara, where local sports teams helped to deliver to the children.
“These are called “Super Baskets of Hope”, said Angela Brunette, looking at the collection of wrapped baskets,” because it’s delivered around the time of the Super Bowl.”
Although the SF 49ers weren’t in the big game, the team’s charitable foundation enlisted Reid, tight ends Kyle Nelson and Vance McDonald, and running back Kendall Gaskins to deliver the baskets to children at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara.
Wearing their jerseys, the players gamely rolled big red wagons filled with baskets down the corridors of the Kaiser Permanente Pediatric Unit. They went from room-to-room on their tour. The children they visited were mostly wide-eyed at the muscular and handsome football players visiting them.
“It was great having these players take time out of their busy schedule to come and visit our patients,” said Wendy Celaya, Child Life Specialist at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara. “They spent time at each patient’s bedside and truly tried to make a connection with each patient and family that they met”
And the players were definitely affected by the children, too.
“Seeing them light up with a smile is really great,” said Reid.
Before the deliveries started, the players joined Reid on the play deck and started a kind of basketball game with young patient Perlin.
“He’s a little tired after chemo and radiation,” said his mom.
Regardless, Jonathan was hitting all the baskets. The 49ers, not so much.