Drawing-For-Chocolate Initiative Supports Forest Hills' Sick Kids

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — In September, production on the flower-shaped chocolate lollipops sold at Aigner Chocolates was delayed; a setback that co-owner Rachel Kellner now sees as "meant to be," since the sweets have become part of timely community project.

Through Jan. 29, kids can get a free lollipop at the Forest Hills-based shop in exchange for a drawing of flowers, which will be hung in pediatric-unit rooms at Elmhurst and LIJ Forest Hills hospitals.

The lollipops were initially going to be part of a back-to-school initiative in support of sick kids, but the project seems more important amid the rapid spread of the omicron variant, said Kellner.

"Morale is really low in the hospital and in the school setting," she said. "Part of our mission as a chocolate shop is to spread joy; we all need a little bit more of that now."

Spreading joy through chocolate is nothing new for Aigner Chocolates. The family-owned, neighborhood institution, which has been at 103-02 Metropolitan Avenue for over 90 years, led a similar drawings-for-chocolate project — dubbed the rainbow bunny exchange — in support of healthcare workers at the onset of the pandemic.

Inspired by the citywide rainbow quarantine project, the chocolate shop collected children's rainbow drawings (in exchange for extra Easter chocolates), and donated the 300-plus pieces of art to Elmhurst Hospital, where they now hang in the lobby.

Kellner expects the flower project, which she's aptly named the "flower power initiative," is going to "blow rainbow bunny out of the water."

Three days in — and with eleven days left to go— the chocolate shop has already collected 57 pictures, said Kellner, who's heard that multiple local schools plan to lead flower-drawing art projects, too.

"When kids come and drop off their pictures you can tell how proud they are. It's hard to see with the mask, but they're smiling," she said, adding that the next best thing will be "seeing the look on the children's faces at the hospitals when they receive the pictures."

Indeed, nurse Francine Kelly, who oversees the emergency department at LIJ Forest Hills, expects that the initiative will be "uplifting" for the hospital's youngest patients.

"Coming into a hospital is frighting for a child already, and even more-so now because we're all in protective equipment," she said, adding that she hopes having artwork made by other children will serve as a "reassuring distraction."

The same can be said for the hospital's doctors and nurses, many of whom are exhausted by the toll of frontline, pandemic work.

"When I shared the plans it was nice to see people [who work at the hospital] smile or nod or say how sweet this is," she said. "It's very heartwarming."