Celebrating the Season With Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s

More than 50 young cancer patients and their families celebrated the season with their physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals at the Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children's Hematology/Oncology holiday party.

The party featured a dancing gingerbread couple, Santa Claus and Los Angeles Rams cheerleaders, who got the crowd dancing. The children and their siblings got their faces painted and went home with kits to make gingerbread houses.

But the best part was meeting other families, said Benjamin Castillo, whose 5-year-old daughter, Camilla, is undergoing cancer treatments.

"It's nice to see other people going through the same thing we are going through," Castillo said. "We are meeting people in the same situation and it's good to see our daughter playing with other kids."

The community came together to support the annual party. The venue was sponsored by the Beverly Hills Police Department, whose officers visit patients at Guerin Children's every month. Sodexo and Love Catering donated the food.

As they have done for 20 years, students at El Segundo High School donated bags full of new toys.

The party was an especially happy occasion for members of the Guerin Children's healthcare team who usually see these children in the hospital.

"It brings out the inner child in me," said Leo Mascarenhas, MD, MS, division chief and director of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children's and medical director of the Sarcoma Program at Cedars-Sinai Cancer. "When I see all these kids having so much fun, it's one of the reasons why I do what I do, so that kids can live their lives as children."

Read more on the Cedars-Sinai Blog: Innovation and Collaboration in Pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children's