{"id":169189,"date":"2026-03-20T13:15:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T13:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/169189\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T13:15:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T13:15:38","slug":"joyrx-lifts-spirits-of-maimonides-pediatric-patients-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/169189\/","title":{"rendered":"JoyRX lifts spirits of Maimonides\u2019 pediatric patients \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"NY:\t\t\t<\/p>\n

12-year-old Hunter, a patient in Maimonides Children\u2019s Hospital\u2019s pediatric unit, listens as live music specialist Spencer Grubbe performs songs by Hunter\u2019s favorite band, Linkin Park, during a weekly bedside music session aimed at helping young patients cope with hospitalization.<\/p>\n

Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

March is Child Life Month, but at Maimonides Children\u2019s Hospital<\/a> in Borough Park, the celebration sounds less like a ceremony and more like a ukulele echoing through the pediatric unit.<\/p>\n

At Maimonides Children\u2019s Hospital \u2014 the only dedicated children\u2019s hospital in Brooklyn, with the largest pediatric and neonatal intensive care units and the only pediatric trauma center in the borough \u2014 Child Life Services offers a year-round child life, creative arts and education program aimed at helping young patients and their families cope with the fear and anxiety of hospitalization, illness and medical procedures.<\/p>\n

Alexis Ellis, child life specialist and manager of Child Life Services<\/a> at Maimonides, told Brooklyn Paper that the program\u2019s team of two full-time child life specialists, one full-time art therapist, social workers and consulting psychiatrists and psychologists aims to make hospital stays less stressful for young patients and their families.<\/p>\n

\"\"Alexis Ellis said the music entertainment gave the children and their families a sense of normalcy.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

\u201cKids who understand why they\u2019re here in the hospital are more compliant, and they have less stress because they know what\u2019s going on,\u201d Ellis explained. \u201cWe also do support for families, whether that be bereavement, new diagnosis, just kind of helping support the whole family and the patient while they\u2019re here in the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to creative art therapies, procedural preparation and support, therapeutic play and bereavement services, the program provides special entertainment such as live music.\n<\/p>\n

Once a week, Spencer Grubbe, a live music specialist with JoyRX Children\u2019s Cancer Association, an organization that provides free music, mentorship and nature experiences to seriously ill children, visits Maimonides\u2019 36-bed pediatric inpatient unit, which treats patients from birth to age 18 with acute and chronic conditions such as diabetes, cancer, blood disorders and trauma.<\/p>\n

\"\"Live music specialist Spencer Grubbe entertains Maimonides\u2019 youngest patients every Wednesday.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"Live music specialist Spencer Grubbe entertains Maimonides\u2019 youngest patients every Wednesday.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Ellis said the music entertainment gives children and their families a sense of normalcy and autonomy because participation is voluntary.\n<\/p>\n

\u201c[The children] get a few choices from this experience that they don\u2019t normally get in the hospital experience, because it\u2019s normally the doctors telling you, \u2018This is what you have to do. You need to take this medicine. You need to do this. You need the shot.\u2019 A lot of things that they need to do to get better, which make kids feel scared and out of control,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cIt really is such a great distraction from the everyday, and even for the staff, the staff loves to hear the kids having a good time and singing and not going through something that\u2019s scary or stressful for the patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grubbe, who has a master\u2019s degree in music theory and composition from NYU, visits five hospitals in New York City during the week, including Maimonides on Wednesdays, making rounds through the pediatric unit with his ukulele \u2014 because it\u2019s the easiest instrument to carry \u2014 but he also brings extra instruments, such as a guitar and keyboard, in case kids want to join the jam session.<\/p>\n

\"\"Spencer Grubbe brings extra instruments in case pediatric patients want to join his jam session.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"Spencer Grubbe asks young patients what their favorite tunes are.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Grubbe grew up listening to metal but tries to stay up to date by listening to a variety of music, given the wide range of genres the children enjoy. He mostly plays by request, and the song choices range from nursery rhymes and Disney songs to heavy metal bands such as Metallica and Megadeth, he told Brooklyn Paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes they\u2019ll hit me with a request from 20 years ago. A couple of weeks ago, one [patient] was requesting [songs], like \u2018Call Me Maybe,\u2019 and Justin Bieber\u2019s \u2018Baby.\u2019 Songs from, I think, definitely, before he was alive. And we were like, \u2018Oh my gosh, I can\u2019t believe you know this song,\u2019\u201d Grubbe shared. \u201cThis job has really encouraged me to listen to lots of different kinds of music, listen to newer music that\u2019s coming out. If there are any artists that are super popular right now, or like kids\u2019 movies that come out, like \u2018KPop Demon Hunter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wednesday jam sessions included renditions of the classic children\u2019s song \u201cWheels on the Bus,\u201d oldies such as \u201cHere Comes the Sun\u201d by the Beatles, and more contemporary tunes like \u201cPut Your Records On.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twelve-year-old Hunter, who has been a patient at Maimonides for two weeks, joined Grubbe for a personal concert in the pediatric unit\u2019s playroom and requested songs by Linkin Park \u2014 his favorite band \u2014 and Metallica.<\/p>\n

The youngest of four \u2014 Hunter has three older sisters \u2014 loves sports and hopes to learn the drums. He was an attentive and appreciative audience as he listened to Grubbe perform \u201cOne Step Closer\u201d and Metallica\u2019s \u201cEnter Sandman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome and fun,\u201d Hunter proclaimed.\n<\/p>\n

Seeing the children light up when they hear him play is fulfilling, Grubbe said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hospital can be really overwhelming, and kids usually don\u2019t get a lot of agency when they\u2019re here. They feel like they\u2019re rushed from one thing to the next. There are always people coming in, and so it\u2019s always fun to be somebody who is just coming into the room to play some music, right? I\u2019m not here to do any medical stuff; just give them some music service. And usually it\u2019s something they request and want to hear, and they really like that. So it means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"12-year-old Hunter, a patient in Maimonides Children\u2019s Hospital\u2019s pediatric unit, listens as live music specialist Spencer Grubbe performs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,69330,69331,69332,2953,69333,69334,9679,9681,9682,9,24,12,370,63,69335,69336],"class_list":["post-169189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-child-life-month","tag-child-life-services","tag-child-life-specialist","tag-health","tag-joyrx-childrenu2019s-cancer-association","tag-live-music-specialist","tag-maimonides","tag-maimonides-childrens-hospital","tag-maimonides-health","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-nyc","tag-pediatric-patient","tag-spencer-grubbe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}