Most people walking past a construction site expect noise, scaffolding, and workers in hard hats.

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Children staying at one hospital in Indiana got something completely different.

Every morning, they woke up to a giant game of “Where’s Wally?” being played outside their windows.

Construction worker Jason Haney became an unlikely hero after creating an enormous eight-foot-tall cutout of the famous striped character and hiding it around a hospital building site every single day so young patients could try and spot him.

And for children stuck inside undergoing treatment, it quickly became the highlight of their day.

Haney was helping build a new wing at Memorial Children’s Hospital in South Bend, Indiana, when he realised many of the children inside spent hours looking out at the construction site from their rooms and play areas.

Wanting to give them something fun to focus on, he decided to create his own oversized version of “Where’s Wally?” — known in the US as “Where’s Waldo?”

Together with his teenage daughter, Haney built a huge cardboard cutout of the iconic character before secretly moving him to different locations around the site every day.

Sometimes Waldo appeared high up on scaffolding. Other days he could be spotted peeking out from ladders, cranes, elevators, or hidden between construction materials.

And every morning, children inside the hospital rushed to the windows to try and find him.

“I’ve been watching the kids run over to the window and look out for Waldo,” hospital media relations specialist Heidi Prescott told ABC News.

“On a daily basis, our pediatric patients, they look forward to going to the windows in their playrooms in their unit to try to figure out “Where’s Waldo?” It usually only takes a few minutes before they see him peering out of the big scaffolding, but it truly brightens their day.”

The game quickly became far bigger than Haney ever expected.

Children staying in the hospital became obsessed with spotting the giant striped figure each day, while parents said it helped take young patients’ minds away from painful treatments and long hospital stays.

One mother, Becky Garza, explained how much the game meant to her daughter during treatment.

“Everyday in that four-day time when she woke up in the morning she was, ‘Where’s Waldo, Where’s Waldo?’, so that kind of helped out a lot too. Just knowing that she was more focused on that than focused on treatments and the pain and stuff that she was feeling at that time,” she said.

For Haney, the idea was deeply personal.

His own family had experienced the fear and uncertainty that comes with having a seriously ill child, and he understood exactly how important small moments of joy can become inside a hospital.

“My daughter, she had a stroke when my wife was carrying her in utero,” Haney explained.

“When she was about 3, we noticed something wasn’t quite right. They did a CAT scan and they found out there was brain damage and were talking about her in the fact that she wouldn’t learn past the third grade level, and it just devastated us.”

Thankfully, his daughter’s story took a far happier turn than doctors initially predicted.

“She’s 18 now and going to be starting Ball State next year,” he proudly added. “She graduated with honors. There goes that third grade level thing that first doctor told us.”

The Waldo game went viral ten years ago, but Haney recently revealed on Instagram that he visited the hospital with his daughter to once again pay a visit to their old friend:

For Haney, the goal was never attention or praise.

It was simply about giving sick children something fun to look forward to during difficult days.

“I just did it so the kids could take their mind off what they’re doing,” he explained. “So they could get out of their room and walk over to the playroom and have a little bit fun. I’m just glad that they’re enjoying it and it’s helping. I’m glad to have the opportunity to do it.”

Jason is now the owner and artist at Warclub Tattoo.

The world needs more people like Jason!

Featured image credit: Beacon Health System