When Mason Meskimen was just 4, the Lincoln-Way East High School student was hospitalized and needed a blood transfusion.

Keeping a young child calm and still during the hours-long procedure seemed nearly impossible, his mother, Heather Meskimen, recalled. Thankfully, she said the Child Life department at Advocate Children’s Hospital — which was called Hope Children’s Hospital at the time — stepped in. Staff kept Mason entertained with a wide variety of donated toys, she said.

“He had to sit in bed for six hours and could not get up and walk around, could not do any physical activity. Trying to keep a 4-year-old in a bed for six hours hooked up to an IV is no small task,” Heather said.

“When we met the lovely people from the child life department at Hope, that’s when Transformers showed up and dinosaurs showed up and DVDs showed up,” she said. “It was just like nonstop. As soon as he got bored with one toy, it was like, ‘Here, let’s try another one.’ ”

“I remember having a blast,” Mason recalled.

The Meskimen family made it a tradition to give back. Each year, they donate toys and hygiene items to Advocate in Oak Lawn and cook a meal for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House next door.

Ronald McDonald House Charities, founded in the 1970s, provides affordable housing and support to families with hospitalized children, giving them a place to stay and ensuring they can remain close to their child.

This year, Mason decided to take that tradition a step further. As part of his National Honor Society service project, he invited the community to join the cause. NHS recognizes students for academic achievement and leadership while encouraging them to serve their schools and communities.

“I just thought that this would be something I could pitch as a service project for the whole school, make it big and just try to give back as much as I can,” Mason said.

Mason set up donation boxes at Ace Hardware on La Grange Road and Pizza Pete in Frankfort. Monetary donations can also be made in person at Pizza Pete or online through the designated donations page. Donations will be collected through May 15.

These items will be used to create hygiene kits Mason, along with friends and family, will assemble before delivering them on May 17. They are also accepting gift cards of $15 or less for grocery stores, gas stations, Target, Amazon and Panera.

Toy donations will go directly to the child life department at Advocate Children’s Hospital, Heather said, and hygiene kits will be split between Advocate and the Ronald McDonald House. Mason requests new, unused items such as puzzles, sensory toys, art kits, dolls and board games; anything that can help bring joy and comfort to children during their hospital stay.

The Meskimen family has donated toys to Advocate Children’s Hospital since Mason’s 5th birthday. After his hospitalization, Mason asked friends attending his party to bring spare change and toys instead of gifts, his mother said. Until this year, the donations mostly came from family.“It’s so moving to see a former patient give back to Advocate Children’s Hospital like this,” Melissa Cavanaugh, manager of child life, creative arts therapies and education, wrote to the Southtown.

“These donations will bring joy to our patients and their families, help normalize the hospital environment through play and remind them that their community is rooting for them on every step of their healing journey.”

Later, the Meskimens expanded the donations to include toiletry items, a decision rooted in Heather’s experience. What was supposed to be a routine doctor’s visit quickly turned into an unexpected 36-hour hospital stay, she said.

Mason had strep throat, which developed into immune thrombocytopenic purpura, a condition in which the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys platelets, leading to a dangerously low count, Heather said. When she took Mason to the pediatrician, she expected a quick visit and a prescription, not a hospital admission.

“I just remember wanting to brush my teeth, and I just wanted to, like, brush my hair. And so that’s another reason why we do like the toiletry piece,” she said.

About eight years ago, Heather said they started preparing a meal for families at the Ronald McDonald House following their donation drop-off.

Next year, Mason said he hopes to make the project bigger by getting permission from his high school to place drop-off bins and promote the service project at school.

smoilanen@chicagotribune.com