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Last summer, Arin Prisand spent hours each day in the hospital with her mother Hannah, who was sick with cancer.

"I realized that there was very little programming for adults in hospitals and a lot of people were there without company and without anything to do," says Prisand.

So Prisand and her mother started the Hannah Banana Foundation. Prisand and volunteers distribute thousands of gift bags filled with therapeutic gifts to patients in five area hospitals.

"We would play Scrabble and we would color and we would do Mad Libs and we would do these things bedside to keep it as a fun environment because being in a hospital really stinks," says Prisand.

"They understand whether you're a patient, an adult patient, or a patient of pediatric age, you still have the same needs and the same concerns and the same distractions that are necessary while you are going through this," says Trisha Choi of NewYork-Presbyterian volunteer services.

When Hannah Prisand's speech became impaired, she would communicate with her daughter by writing on dry erase boards.

"We also give dry erase boards to ENT and ICU patients when their ability to speak is compromised," says Arin Prisand. "They can use these boards to communicate with their loved ones and with their hospital staff."

Arin Prisand was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and three months later Hannah died. In Hannah's honor, Arin Prisand published a book of her mother's poetry called "Dancing Backwards." The sales of the book help buy the therapeutic items.

"We also do 'Hannah Banana days' in the hospital, where we read the poetry to kids in the hospital and then they can do arts and crafts projects based on it," says Prisand.

"It connects with the part of them that's not sick to remember that they're kids and not to kind of like freeze and just think of themselves as patients primarily," says Dr. Alexander Aledo, a professor of clinical pediatrics at NewYork-Presbyterian.

Prisand is now cancer-free and hopes both the gifts and her mother's poetry will inspire patients.

"She'd be very proud and very happy that her legacy is living on making other patients smile and helping out because that's what she wanted," says Prisand.

So, for brightening the day of patients of all ages and putting a smile on their faces, Arin Prisand is the latest New Yorker of the Week.

If you'd like to nominate someone to be NY1's New Yorker of the Week, send an email describing their qualifications to: nyer@ny1.com or mail a letter to:
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