Talent show brings joy to kids at children’s hospital 

WATCH NOW: Talent show at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital

Every week, the seventh floor of University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital fills with applause.

Patients perform card tricks, show off drawings, dance and play guitar.

Staff members participate alongside them, families cheer from the audience and sometimes people stand outside the door to watch.

For the kids on the seventh floor, the weekly talent show is more than an activity.

It’s a chance to be more than a patient, connect with the people around them and have something to look forward to during a time that can otherwise revolve around treatment.

The tradition began in February 2025, when patients and staff came together to create the first show.

What started with simple signs and a makeshift stage has grown into a weekly event that now brings at least 20 people together.

“The talent show has really humble beginnings,” said Mary Breakey, a parent host at C.S. Mott 7E.

“A dad of a patient wrote a song for the nurse caring for his child. The nurse had told him we had a talent show, but the talent show was for staff only during night shift. The nurse asked me if I could create a talent show so he could perform the song, and I made it happen."

The seventh-floor talent show is not limited to the patients.

Staff members often join in, turning the event into a shared celebration.

Gregory Yanik, M.D., Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Mott, sometimes joins the singalong, recently performing The Monkees’ “I’m A Believer” alongside patients, families and staff.

For Yanik, those moments are just as meaningful as they are for the patients.

“This is the highlight of my whole week,” Yanik said.

Since then, patients have brought their own talents to the seventh-floor stage. 

One of those patients is 15-year-old Landen Silveus.

While hospitalized, Landen met a magician who taught him how to perform card tricks.

He began practicing and eventually brought his new skills to the talent show.

One of his favorites involves splitting a deck twice before revealing a card chosen by someone in the audience.

For Landen Silveus, the performances also became a way to break up the monotony of being in the hospital.

“It got me out of my room,” Landen said.

“The talent show gave me something to look forward to.”

Sixteen-year-old Donovan Sheedy, known as DJ, found his way to the stage through music.

After connecting with a music therapist while receiving treatment, DJ began developing his guitar skills.

He eventually started performing at the talent show, playing classic rock songs including “Midnight Rider” and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”

“When I was staying in the hospital, I didn’t want to stay in my room all day and do chemo,” DJ said.

“It got me to do something while receiving care.”

DJ’s mother, Cassandra Sheedy, remembers a time when simply getting through the day could be difficult for her son.

DJ was 15 when he was diagnosed, an experience Cassandra describes as scary.

Chemotherapy often left him exhausted and without the energy to do much of anything.

Then she watched him play.

At one performance at Sophie’s Place, DJ played guitar with his grandfather as staff members gathered around them.

What began as a small performance quickly took on the feeling of a concert. 

“When he played, he became himself again,” Cassandra said.

Music gave DJ a way to reconnect with himself, while the talent show gave him a reason to share that part of himself with others.

He would make sure his treatments were finished in time to perform.

DJ eventually helped start the talent show alongside music therapist Matthew Bessette, M.A. MT-BC, Neurologic Music Therapist and Breakey, giving other patients the same opportunity that had become so meaningful to him.

DJ has not been admitted to the hospital in about a year, but he still returns to the seventh floor for the talent show.

“Seeing the kids’ smiles when I play is why I keep coming back to the talent show even after receiving care,” DJ said.

“I don’t know if he would’ve fought as hard without the talent show as a motivator,” Cassandra said.

What began as a small gathering now draws at least 20 people each week, with staff, families and patients sometimes standing outside the room to watch.

"A talent show may not cure cancer,” Breakey said.

"But it can help heal the heart and bring a child courage, hope, joy and happiness."

That healing takes the form of applause after a card trick, a guitar chord filling the hallway, or a child stepping forward to share something they love.

For a moment, the focus shifts away from treatment and toward the person behind it.

On the seventh floor, there is always something to look forward to.

Learn about getting involved at BlockOutCancer.org and be a part of bringing hope, healing and brighter tomorrows to children and families facing cancer.

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