Project Sunshine Grows From Dorm Room To Global Volunteer Group Helping Sick Kids

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Project Sunshine is a nonprofit group that helps children by organizing thousands of volunteers to bring them special programs while they undergo medical treatments.

Joseph Weilgus told CBS2's Andrea Grymes he started Project Sunshine in 1998 from his college dorm room.

"I was a volunteer clown -- face paint, wig, hanging out with kids in hospitals -- and I'd go there between classes, after classes, etc," he said. "And I saw different types of needs and gaps within the pediatric health care world -- fourth child of a single mom sleeping alone in a hospital or a child out of school for several months without proper tutoring or someone just to keep them in good spirits."

Weilgus then became a matchmaker of sorts, finding volunteers to meet different needs for kids. Project Sunshine now has more than 15,000 volunteers in more than 175 cities around the world.

Model and dancer Damaris Lewis is one of those volunteers.

"Back in 2009, I went to a fashion show that they were doing, and this little girl came up to me, and she tugged my shirt, and she said, 'Please, don't be like everybody else and never come back," Lewis said. " ... And I think that the volunteers, they get as much out of it as the kids get, if not more."

To watch the full interview, click on the video above.

For more information about Project Sunshine, visit ProjectSunshine.org.