Beads for a Cause

Yeah, it’s about time. About time that I part with few of my excess beads… and I certainly have excess beads; lots of experiments, lots of not quite ready for prime time beads, lots of practice beads. I often give these beads to my kids and their teenage friends, I also have a few grown up friends who like to rifle through my bowls and boxes of of miscellaneous beads looking for treasures.

“Treasure” is certainly in the eye of the “bead holder” as I’m always surprised when they find a bead that I, quite frankly, thought was ugly, and they think it’s truly beautiful. It really is time for me to let a few more of these beads out of my house, and what better place to send some to than the Beads of Courage program.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Beads of Courage is a therapy program for critically ill children that is offered at numerous hospitals throughout the country. As children receive their various treatments, they are rewarded with a bead to add to the necklace that chronicles the steps and hurdles they’ve encountered as they bravely fight their illnesses. I never quite realized how much these poor kids go through until I read some of the stories on the website and saw pictures of children with their long, long strands of beads.

One such story is that of Rena, a 7 year old leukemia patent. I was quite surprised to see how many strands of beads she’s accumulated, and it made me realize how big the program’s need for beads must be.

I’m a bit embarrassed that in all the time I’ve been making beads I haven’t sent any off to Beads of Courage, but now is the time to change that. I put together a nice baggie of beads that hopefully some child would like, and I’ve started to try to make an effort to make some of the specialty beads the program requires.

Two particular beads the program seeks are purple hearts, which signify the end of treatment, and butterflies, which are the given in memoriam to the parent of children who have passed away. I like making the purple hearts, but I have to admit I haven’t been able to do the butterflies. I have tried to make them, but not being a sculptural bead maker I have never been quite happy with my designs. When I consider the sad event these beads represent, I feel the need to be very particular about what I make, and nothing yet has passed my test, but I plan to challenge myself to come up with something worthy for the cause.

Linda beads and blogs from her home in Salt Lake City, Utah!