Making boxes for the Beads of Courage program at the Children’s Hospital at St. Francis Hospital is a new community service project for our club.
Beads of Courage is a program for children who are seriously ill with cancer or other serious disease or condition. The beads help them tell their treatment stories through the colored beads they receive for medical procedures, treatment milestones, and acts of bravery. For instance, they get a yellow bead for an overnight hospital stay, a white one for chemotherapy, and a glow-in-the-dark bead for radiation treatment. Children can amass hundreds of beads during their treatment and typically string them together to form necklaces.
Our project is to turn lidded boxes for the children to use to store their beads and necklaces. Club members are encouraged to turn boxes that are between 4 and 6 inches in diameter and 6 to 8 inches tall. Box design is up to the club member. Be creative and remember these boxes are for kids. We would like some reference to Beads of Courage to be incorporated in your design. The club will have ceramic beads with the BOC logo available for your use. In addition, members are asked to include their name and the club’s name, “NEOWTA”, to the bottom of the boxes.
This is an ongoing project. We need to provide at least 15 boxes for kids already in the program. We will need 8 to 10 boxes per month on an ongoing basis to meet the needs of kids entering the program in the future.
Completed boxes should be brought to the monthly club meetings. If you have questions please contact one of these individuals:
Arthur Barber – phone: 918-671-2437 email: abarber2@gmail.com