Torrey Family and Jefferson Kids Make Boxes of Fun

he Torrey family brings fun wherever they go, including Jefferson School. Jesse Torrey will soon lead a second enrichment session of “Boxes of Fun,” a project that is dear to her heart.

“The Box of Fun,” explained Torrey, “is a decorated box full of games, toys, arts and craft supplies, whatever might keep a kid busy and entertained.”  

But this is not busy box or birthday gift; the Boxes of Fun are donated to children, from infants to teens, undergoing stem-cell transplants at Columbia-Presbyterian. There are, reports Torrey, growing numbers of such kids, as many as 60 each year.

The Box of Fun project is one way the Torrey family, Dan, Jesse, Jack and Jefferson School fifth grader Anna, pay kindness forward.

In 2006, Jack, then a student at Marshall, began to change.

"Jack had always been a great student, but he began having problems in school. His teachers said he would not finish his work," Torrey told Patch last year. "We started seeing things at home as well. I would check on him as he was getting dressed and find him standing there with clothes all askew."

After several months of tests, Jack’s doctors finally had an answer. "A doctor came in and asked me when my husband was going to be at the hospital.  When I heard that, I knew it was not going to be good news. Then the doctor said the meeting was going to be held in a conference room. There were social workers present and tissue boxes everywhere," recalls Torrey. Jack was diagnosed with adrenoleukodystrophy, or ALD, a rare, inherited disease.

After diagnosis, Jack underwent a stem cell transplant at Columbia-Presbyterian.

"Jack had to get hard-core chemotherapy for 10 days in order to have his body accept the new stem cells," said Torrey. And on that first day of chemotherapy, in May 2007, a Box of Fun arrived.

“We were sitting there,” recalls Torrey, “and in come Kim Vivenzio and Kim Mackay with this huge box full of all kinds of cool stuff for Jack. Three hours into chemotherapy, and Jack starts singing, ‘It’s the best day ever,’ from Sponge-Bob.”

The Box of Fun was organized by Vivenzio, who asked Maplewood and South Orange friends to participate. Vivenzio had received her own Box of Fun years earlier, when she underwent a stem-cell transplant.

Torrey credits the Box of Fun not only for keeping Jack entertained during a hospital stay that lasted 70 days, but for giving visitors something to focus on. “It can be difficult when you visit someone in the hospital, especially for kids,” she explains. “The box gave everyone something to do and to talk about.”

Fast-forward to the present, when the Torrey family is actively engaged in returning the kindness they have received in the past years. The family has organized local , including one that marked Jack’s eleventh birthday, and the Box of Fun project is growing, especially at Jefferson.

Torrey’s enrichment class, which meets after school, decorates and fills Boxes of Fun. “At first,” says Torrey, “we made them general, maybe for a boy or girl.” The project was launched with a donation from the Maplewood Makos swim team and has grown. Now Torrey, a former art teacher, and her crew have customized the box décor, based on what the recipient enjoys. “We’ve made teddy bears, Yankees logos, you name it,” she says.

While Jack continues to battle his illness, his family enjoys the present and looks forward to the future. Torrey sees benefit for local kids in making Boxes of Fun. “They think about why someone might receive this,” she says, “and it means a lot to the recipients that other kids put this together.”

“We never, ever take family time for granted,” says Torrey, who knows exactly how many days it is since Jack’s transplant. “We have a lot of fun together.”

And fun is what Torrey hopes to share with young patients who need it most, with great big Boxes of Fun.

To find out more about Boxes of Fun, or make a contribution, contact Jesse Torrey at 201-323-5208 or jctorrey@mac.com.