The Foreman Who Hid Waldo for Hospital Kids

Jason Haney was a labor foreman building a new wing for a children's hospital in South Bend, Indiana (called Beacon Children's Hospital in its own release and Memorial Children's Hospital in ABC's coverage), when he started hiding a giant Waldo around the construction site. Patients on the sixth floor of the hospital had one job: find him.

A Co-Worker's Idea

According to the hospital's release, the idea came from a co-worker, Bob Taylor, who suggested a life-size Where's Waldo cutout somewhere around the construction area where patients could see it. Haney, who worked for the general contractor J.J. White, decided it was something he had to do.

He cut the outline of Waldo from a 4-by-8 sheet of plywood at home. His daughter Taylor helped him paint it, and the father-daughter pair finished the red-and-white-striped figure together.

Beacon Health System's release puts Waldo at seven feet tall. Some news outlets, including ABC and CNN, called him eight feet, so the height depends on who is measuring.

Six Floors Up

The game worked from above. Children on the sixth floor of the pediatric ward looked out over the site and tried to spot Waldo among the construction scaffolding.

Beacon's account says it quickly turned into a game: once a child six floors up found Waldo, Haney was notified and moved him to another location. Then the search started over.

A hospital media specialist told ABC it usually took the children only a few minutes to spot him in the big scaffolding.

A Hunt That Grew

The hospital's release says the game became so popular that Haney created a Facebook page for it.

Tracy Byler, who coordinates the Child Life Program at Beacon Children's Hospital, said the kids really enjoy the challenge of looking for Waldo. She added that construction crews had even come up to join the hospital's Bingo games.

"I'm glad the kids are enjoying it," Haney said. "Being part of this construction project that is going to help kids means a lot to me."

What Came Next

The hospital's release closed with a teaser about Haney's next artistic project, asking whether anyone could say Minions. The release does not say whether the Minions ever got built.

The coverage that followed ran on CNN, ABC and Today in July 2016. What lasted was simple: a foreman, a sheet of plywood and a daughter with a paintbrush.