First lady, pediatric patients make Valentine’s art
BETHESDA, Md. — Melania Trump gave some love to her new city during a Valentine’s Day arts-and-crafts session with pediatric patients Thursday.
At a station where the children wrote their “favorite things” on construction paper hearts, the first lady went with “My favorite city is Washington.” She signed the heart with her name and stuck it on a board on a wall with several other hearts.
During the visit to The Children’s Inn on the campus of the National Institutes of Health outside Washington, she also helped make candy boxes — and assisted a line of children in filling them up with a variety of sugary treats — and snow globes.
Amani, a 13-year-old boy from Mombasa, Kenya, showed her how to turn a wooden clothespin into a colorful clip.
“This is a big project,” Trump said during the tutorial. Amani has sickle cell disease and is preparing for a bone marrow transplant with marrow donated by his sister, the White House said. The first lady told Amani that she will pray for him. He presented her with a red heartshaped box that held a silver necklace with “Hope & Faith” inscribed on a silver circle.
He also gave the first lady a bouquet of white roses.
The Children’s Inn is a private, nonprofit residence for children and families participating in pediatric research at NIH. Trump was at the inn on Valentine’s Day last year when she first learned of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
She was greeted Thursday by Amber, 9, of San Jose, Calif. Amber, who participates in a gene therapy trial, was among the children with whom Trump visited during last year’s visit.
Trump is focusing her work as first lady on the well-being of children.