Our Donation to Beads of Courage
Beads of Courage was one of the organizations that Rachel had hoped to support when she envisioned her foundation. They provide beautiful glass beads to cancer fighting kids to help document their journey and tell their story. The kids get beads for each clinic visit, blood transfusion, chemotherapy session, hair loss, hospital stay and all of the other icky things that they face on a daily basis. Rachel's beads were so meaningful to her and continue to be a treasure to us today. We are so happy to announce that, thanks to all of you, we have the chance to donate to this organization in Rachel's honor. Their Executive Director has assured us that 100% of our donations will go to the programs that we are sponsoring.
One thing that Rachel learned during her fight was how important it was to be able to communicate with other young cancer fighters to provide support to one another. When she was unable to find the right group for her, she worked with others to create a group for young adults. Their Facebook group of cancer fighters became very important to Rachel during her battle. Beads of Courage recently created a Trade Bead program allowing young adults in active treatment in one hospital to write notes of encouragement to young adults at another hospital and provide symbolic beads for this Trade Bead experience. With our $1,250 donation to this program, they will be organizing a Trade Bead experience for 125 Beads of Courage members including, at our request, young adults at Seattle Children's Hospital and Mary Bridge Children's Hospital! We will be working with them to select a bead specific to our program sponsorship. We think this is a perfect fit for our mission!
Drawing, painting and writing were some of the things that Rachel loved to do most. They helped her to relax and focus her positive energy. Beads of Courage understands the importance of finding positive ways to relieve stress for young cancer fighters. Last year, they piloted their Bead Strong Program with great success. This program includes art directives and a unique symbolic
bead with each activity. These art directives are designed to provide a meaningful bedside reflective activity to help manage worries, while holding hope during the challenges of treatment. We're thrilled to announce that with our $750 donation, they will provide up to 100 meaningful Bead Strong Activities and provide an opportunity to include a statement on each activity sheet from our foundation as the sponsor, to share Rachel's story. We can't think of a more meaningful way to honor Rachel than to help share what she learned with others. Thank you for giving us this amazing opportunity! If you'd like to learn more about the amazing things that Beads of Courage does, please check out this video!
