Friday, February 08, 2008

Beads of Courage

After reading on Tina's blog about the Beads of Courage program, I felt inspired to send them some beads, too.

Click the link above (and download this pdf) for specific information-- but in a nutshell, they distribute hand-made beads to children with serious illnesses (and their families). Each bead marks a step on the child's journey through treatment.

While I was still on my spiral bead kick, I made up a handful of larger-holed beads. (See the pdf; they need beads with at least 1/16-inch holes, preferably 3/32-inch holes. I found that that's larger than what I usually make in my beads.)

I also went through my stash of previously-made beads to find some with larger stringing holes. Now I just need to pack them up and get them in the mail.

Once I get over that little twinge of "are they good enough?"-- or maybe it's more "are they what the program wants?"-- it's a nice feeling, doing something kind for someone else. (And I figure that even if they can't use them in their program, they can still give them to a children's hospital for use in arts and crafts.)

I like this program because it's so easy. Bottles of Hope (another very worthy cause) is a bit intimidating to me. I haven't covered much with clay, before (and there's also the issue of where to get the bottles and how to distribute them, etc.)-- but I have plenty of experience making beads. All you need is some clay, postage, and the address.

If you have the means to do so, I hope you'll consider sending along a batch of your own beads. It truly does give you a wonderful feeling to make something for someone in a simple gesture of caring.

3 comments:

said...

Howdy do, I just surfed in on an 'owl blog' search to your too cool blog.

Stay on groovin' safari,
Tor

Anonymous said...

Michael,

Thank you for helping spred the word about this wonderful program! and thanks for joining in on the fun! Love reading your blog...

HUGS!

Michael said...

Hi, Tor! Glad you stopped by! :o)

Thanks, Tina! I'm happy to help spread the word!