Volunteers plant trees at Shriners hospital to create buffer from passenger, freight trains

The Shriners Children’s Chicago hospital on the West Side was built alongside railroad tracks in 1926 so parents could easily visit kids receiving treatment for polio and orthopedic conditions.

On Tuesday, a small army of volunteers planted 15 trees on a grassy knoll near the tracks to mitigate sound and pollution from the busy railway line.

Several Metra trains and a long freight train passed by as helpers from several large Chicago companies took time off work to dig holes and plant oak, bald cypress and catalpa trees.

Christine Busco and several colleagues from the Mars Wrigley plant adjacent to the hospital took a break from making Snickers bars and other sweet treats.

Busco grew up three blocks from the hospital and remembers coming to parades there as a kid and seeing Shriners in their trademark hats and tiny cars. She’s also had a loved one receive treatment at the hospital.

“This place has a special meaning for me,” she said.

Kourtney Goodall, 6, who had her foot amputated at the hospital and wears a prosthetic, attended the tree planting.

“They give me teddy bears and help me,” Kourtney, who lives in Riverdale, said of the people who run the hospital. “I can do cartwheels and gymnastics.”

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Lisa Dannewitz, 33, volunteered with a team of other DocuSign employees. “It’s just nice to give back to the community,” she said.

“It’s a great cause,” said her colleague, Jerry Choinski, 33.

Jessica Turner-Skoff, a science communications leader with the Morton Arboretum, which helped oversee the planting, said science has proven that trees have a healing effect on hospital patients.

“People heal better and faster when they have a green view of trees,” she said.

The event was also held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Shriners Children’s health care system.

Its first hospital was founded in Shreveport, Louisiana. The nonprofit organization runs 22 medical facilities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The trains that run past the West Side hospital will still provide a source of wonder, entertainment and transit to patients and their families.

“Our patients will never turn down the chance to watch trains and Metra speed by,” a hospital spokeswoman said.