Morgan Center Is America’s Only Preschool for Kids with Cancer

The Morgan Center in Long Island was created as a non-profit preschool for children with leukemia and other forms of cancer.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on June 09 2010

Ten years ago, Morgan Zuch, a two-year-old girl from Long Island, New York, was diagnosed with leukemia. The day that Morgan’s father, Rod, found out about it, he made a vow.

“Please, God, if you get my daughter better, I will give back the rest of my life,” he said.

Fortunately, Morgan recovered and went into remission—and ever since then, Rod and his wife, Nancy, have been helping other families with cancer-stricken children through the creation of the Morgan Center, the country’s first preschool specifically for children with cancer.

Because of the risk of germs, children with cancer are usually forbidden from socializing with other kids, and must spend their days in hospital rooms or lying in bed at home. The Zuchs believed that children with cancer should have the opportunity to play, too.

The center offers the kids and their families a safe place to connect with others who are dealing with the same problems. To minimize the risk of infections, the center’s staff is careful to wash their own and the children’s hands frequently, and to provide each child with their own toys and supplies.

“You feel like you’re not the ‘sick kid’s mom,’” one child’s mother, Maura Lewinger, told ABC News. “It is nice because there is no difference between any of them.”

The Zuchs run the center as a non-profit, and there are no fees for any of the families who bring their children to the center. Nancy Zuch works as the head teacher—with a little help from her daughter Morgan, now 12 years old. Today, Morgan is strong and healthy, and loves to provide support for the children enduring the difficult times that she went through.

And when she grows up? “I want to be a teacher at the Morgan Center,” she said.

Check out a video of the Morgan Center.

Filed under: Health and Wellbeing, Non-Profits,

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