Officials at Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital in Hastings believe that kids shouldn't be afraid of going to the hospital.
"With children it's always best to let them know that the hospital is a friendly place and there's lots of people that work here that are here to help them, so it's not so scary if they have to come for any reason," says Jennifer Kalvelage with the MLMH Public Relations Department.
This week about a hundred fifth graders from Hastings area schools will get an inside look at Mary Lanning's sports medicine and rehabilitation department.
"Fifth graders are at the age where they're going into doing more sports and they may be having some injuries and [need to know] how to deal with that and how to stay healthy too," says Kalvelage.
Certified Athletic Trainer Pat Liebsack visits Hastings area schools so he says he may be running into some of the Kenesaw fifth graders he spoke with on Monday more in the future as they get into school athletics.
"We go out to the schools, I go out twice a week and then I work a lot of games and stuff, so it gives me an opportunity to get to know the kids better and develop a relationship with them," say Liebsack.
The hospital says the kid-friendly theme of this year's visits was super heroes, and that it's people like Liebsack who make hospitals a safe, caring place to be.
"When we're talking about super heroes we're talking about all those people at the hospital that help people, they are super heroes, kind of everyday heroes," says Kalvelage.
Liebsack says he just wants students to know that they are there to help.
"It just kind of gives them an idea of other things that we do through the hospital, it's just not patients coming in and being sick and stuff, we do a lot of other things," he says.
The hospital says this year they'll reach out to nearly 900 students during their hospital tours. Preschoolers, first, and third graders also get to visit. They see pediatric and surgical units on their tours.
