Tockwotton

Seniors of Tockwotton on the Waterfront gather weekly to send greetings to young inpatients. 

Tockwotton on the Waterfront, a senior living community in East Providence, has joined other local businesses to send good night wishes to the patients of Hasbro Children’s Hospital. Tockwotton is the latest organization in the Providence area to flash their lights for the hospital’s patients at 8:30 p.m. each night.

“Good Night Lights” began with the efforts of Steve Brosnihan, a cartoonist and 26-year volunteer at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. When leaving the hospital for the evening, Steve would pause to flash the headlight on his bicycle toward the patients at the hospital. Tockwotton on the Waterfront, a senior living community in East Providence, has joined other local businesses to send good night wishes to the patients of Hasbro Children’s Hospital. Tockwotton is the latest organization in the Providence area to flash their lights for the hospital’s patients at 8:30 p.m. each night.

“Eventually, I figured out that I could send a good night signal right from the bus stop that would be seen by many rooms,” Brosnihan said to Rhode Island Monthly magazine. “The bus stop signal goes right over the Hot Club, so their neon sign became the marker that I told the kids to focus on.”

After Steve recruited a handful of Providence businesses to participate, including the Hot Club, “Good Night Lights” gained traction, eventually spreading throughout the Providence area. Within the view of Hasbro Children’s Hospital, businesses, universities, and police departments joined in to pause and illuminate each evening’s “minute of magic.”

Tockwotton residents now gather with flashlights at west-facing windows to send their message.

The patients of Hasbro Children’s Hospital, typically eager to respond, assemble in darkened rooms with their own sources of light and flash back to the surrounding communities. For 60 seconds, patients engage in a luminous dialogue with residents.

“Residents really look forward to this and they gear up for it,” said Timothy Anderson, Tockwotton’s activities director. “They’re full of life and they’re really loving this whole idea that we’re still part of everything, we’re still part of the community. You really feel the excitement.”