'Holiday Hallway' bringing smiles to children at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

NEW YORK (PIX11) -- Doctors, nurses and health professionals are heroes saving lives every day at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. But during December, the carpenters, electricians and other workers of the building are also community champions, creating a magical hallway for patients and their families. 

The "Holiday Hallway" is in the basement of Memorial Sloan Kettering. It typically the maintenance shops, where the plumbers and carpenters have their workshops. Now, it’s been transformed into Santa’s workshop.

When 5-year-old Rihanna Plaza from Bridgeport, Connecticut, saw the Holiday Hallway for the first time, she fell in love with the carousel. Rihanna has battled a rare form of cancer since birth and has endured dozens of rounds of chemotherapy and is now cancer free. 

It’s the reaction of the children like Rihanna that Sheena Basu says her team of nearly 40 electricians, plumbers, and painters at Memorial Sloan Kettering have been working for weeks to make happen.  

From train sets to tgigantic handmade nutcrackers, Basu says it’s easy to forget where you are. But then you see this giving tree of life with pictures of patients who have inspiring stories. 

It’s almost as long as a city block now. It’s a labor of love for the staff there. They use their own money and are volunteering their own time. 

Workers have been doing this for almost 30 years. Anthony Mantione is a mechanic by day and a volunteer Santa’s elf. He made a menorah entirely out of six feet of pipe. 

Every decoration comes from the heart and gives patients a reason to smile.  

The hallway is running until the new year and the team of elves are plan on expanding.  If you want to help, you can donate to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.