Beads of Courage on CBS Sunday Morning from Beads of Courage on Vimeo.

Isn't he the cutest baby ever!?    

Beads of Courage -

~helping children, RECORD, TELL, and OWN their stories of Courage.

A few weeks ago, a young mom named Stacie came into the store looking for a few beads for her infant son Kellen because he was about to go through another stage of open heart surgery. Kellen was born with a very rare and very serious life-threatening heart condition (hypoplastic left heart syndrome - which translates into literally being born with an underdeveloped half a heart) and has had to undergo numerous surgeries to correct it and give him a chance at a normal life.  Naturally, we got talking about his  "beads of courage" string, where each bead he earned represents all of the milestones of his medical challenges, tests, and procedures. Through CHOP she heard about this inspiring organization called Beads of Courage. (You can visit the official website to find more information at www.beadsofcourage.org.)  

Here at Buttercup, we want to help.  We are looking for donations of beads, people making beads (polymer), and more to help the organization, Kellen, and the other children enrolled in the program. Below is a little snip from an article about the organization. You can also check on young Kellins progress, at www.carepages.com - search for Kellenj1221 and read about his most recent (and successful!) surgery. 

Here is how it works:  "Children who participate in the program receive colored beads that represent milestones, procedures, 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. It's not uncommon for children to amass 10, 20 -- even 35 -- feet of beads. It helps young patients track and celebrate their progress, but it also gives them a way to get through upcoming procedures, says Gwendolyn Possinger, the coordinator of Children's Memorial Hospital's Beads of Courage program in Chicago. "A child facing another needle can look at his beads and realize that he made it through before so he can do it again," she says.

Today the nonprofit organization supports more than 10,000 children in 60 hospitals in the United States, Japan, New Zealand, and Ireland and is funded exclusively by private donations. With the help of participating hospitals, Beads of Courage is also constantly evolving. Baruch and her team have expanded the program to include many conditions and diseases. They also focus on other ways the arts can help families dealing with a serious illness."

Please drop off your bead donations in the store at any time. Once the canister is full, we will ship it off to Beads of Courage for them to use as and where needed.

Thank you to all who joined our First Beads of Courage -
Bead Bag Sew-a-thon on Nov. 17

We completed about half our goal and
we will meet again on Dec. 8th for more sewing fun! Join Us!  6pm until?

Below are some pics of the evening - Thank you again to all who came out!