THE BRAVERY BEAD PROGRAM

Giving back to our community is one of The Artsy Crafter’s goals. What better way to do this than to join forces with St. Vincent Hospital, Prevea Clinic’s Child Life Department, and Families of Children with Cancer, Inc. (a local family support group) in sponsoring the Bravery Bead Program – a project launched in Canada and spreading throughout the United States.

It tugs at our hearts to see children who are seriously ill. The Bravery Bead Program helps these children mark every step along their journey to recovery. The children collect a bead for each hospital procedure and create one-of-a-kind multicolored necklaces that tell their specific stories.

The journey starts with the words HOPE and COURAGE. Children add a balloon bead for each birthday celebrated during treatment. A metallic rainbow bead represents bone marrow transplants. A lime-colored bead indicates chemotherapy. The children add aqua pony beads for each clinic visit and cat beads for CT scans. A child who loses hair gets a round smiley face, and a transfusion warrants a red heart.

There are nearly 40 different beads representing a long list of procedures that would terrify most adults. A single bead ends the journey – and it says LIFE!

For more information about St. Vincent Hospital’s Bravery Bead Program, contact Colleen Ducke at cducke@stvgb.org.

Annual Paul's Pantry Food Drive

In conjunction with our First Anniversay Celebration we sponsored our second annual food drive for Paul's Pantry. Every non perishable food item brought to The Artsy Crafter between November 5th and November 13th earned 1 ticket towards a drawing for prizes. Our customers brought in 332 pounds of food. We beat last year by 32 pounds. Thank you to all of our "Artsy Crafters" out there.