KIDS ON THE BLOCK

"You mean you have a girl's heart? Don't you feel weird -- like you want to play Barbies or something?"

"No, Mike. A heart, it's just a muscle...I just have a new muscle, not a new personality."

This is just part of a conversation between two life-size puppets in the "Gift of Life" Kids On the Block (KOB) puppet program.

The national program, available to schools and groups here in Sacramento free of charge, has developed a series of puppet presentations to explain issues such as organ and tissue donation, AIDS, sexual abuse, and divorce… all with sensitivity, frankness, and humor.

In the "Gift of Life" program, three puppets with three very different personalities explain organ and tissue donation. Alex, a sociable and thoughtful 11 year old, talks about his heart transplant and Michael Riley is the curious red-haired kid, who asks all the questions, some serious and some humorous.

GSDS uses the forty-five minute KOB program to educate third, fourth and fifth grade children about donation and transplantation. The puppeteers for Sacramento performances, are specially trained volunteers with the Assistance League of Sacramento, (ALS), a chapter of the National Assistance League, which is a nonprofit, charitable group.

If you would like to have the puppets perform for your school or group, please call, Nancy Tooley, with the Assistance League of Sacramento, at: 916.488.0484, or e-mail Brenda Owen, GSDS Public Education Coordinator at BOwen@dcids.org.

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