Nintendo is encouraging children across the country to come up with their own super abilities

Nintendo is encouraging children across the country to come up with their own super abilities, much the way that Kirby – the main character in Kirby’s Return to Dreamland – might have.

Kirby, the popular pink puffball, is also striving to help children in hospitals through Nintendo’s Starlight Foundation.

Kids who visit http://kirby.nintendo.com/superability will be invited to create drawings and descriptions of their dream Super Abilities, taking inspiration from Kirby’s Super Abilities in the new Kirby’s Return to Dream Land game for the Wii system. Their imaginative creations can be submitted to Nintendo and may be featured as part of a project to aid Starlight Children’s Foundation.

Kids’ completed Super Ability coloring sheets can be submitted via mail, email or fax. Nintendo and Scholastic will post select submissions to a virtual gallery on the Nintendo site, and some submissions will be featured at a special Oct. 27 unveiling at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach in Long Beach, Calif., to celebrate Nintendo’s sponsorship of an interactive Starlight Fun Center mobile entertainment unit.

Both Nintendo and Scholastic are dedicated to raising awareness about Starlight by encouraging children to help others:

Since 1992, Nintendo and Starlight have placed more than 7,000 Fun Centers in hospitals across North America. The ease with which Fun Centers roll right up to the side of young patients’ beds or anywhere in a hospital setting makes them the perfect companion for children who are nervously awaiting surgery, sitting restlessly during a long treatment or feeling lonely in their hospital room.

http://www.nintendo.com/corp/starlight.jsp

What a fun idea to help others!! I am printing off some sheets for my kids to color this afternoon!  We have had several trips to the emergency room and while we weren’t ever there for very long periods of time, we were there long enough to know how hard it is to keep kids in uncomfortable beds in uncomfortable situations- and that’s just the ER.  I saw how much these TVs and gaming units did to keep children entertained who weren’t able to do other things!!

The entertainment units include a flat-screen TV, a DVD player, a Wii system and a selection of fun video games.