The Educators' Spin On It

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Making Greeting Cards for Small Hands Creating Hope:

When our loved ones are diagnosed with cancer and are undergoing treatments, we look for ways to reach out to help them as much as possible.   Sending a message of hope is sometimes the best medicine we can give.  Sending personalized greeting cards to them is one of the easiest ways to connect with someone as they are going through treatments.  There’s something in the healing power of your spirit to read card after card knowing that someone is thinking of you as you are facing cancer.  My sweet uncle sent a card every day to my other uncle while he went through treatments, it gave him something to look forward to tomorrow, a message of love, strength and hope!

On a more personal note, cancer has touched many of my family members and friends.  I have lost my grandfather to lung cancer and my other grandfather to prostate cancer, a brilliant friend to brain cancer, and a dear friend who lost her 3 year old son to cancer.  Through my tears and sadness, I’ve also watched some very brave teaching friends and my best friend’s mom become survivors of breast cancer.  I watched my uncle survive throat cancer, my grandmother survive colon cancer and my close friend and mom have skin cancer removed multiple times.  I’ve watched two close friend’s husbands go through treatments for colon and liver cancer one is in remission and the other still fighting incredibly hard.   Our loved ones fighting and surviving every day! There is hope and we’re creating it day by day!
Here’s a project that has helped our local community of moms to give support and love to cancer patients as we foster hope.  As a mom’s group we all have stories of loved ones whose lives have changed forever because of cancer and are looking for ways to reach out to help others on a local level who are going through cancer treatments.  We’ve connected with the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge, a facility for adult patients and their caregivers.  We’ve had the opportunity to volunteer at our local Hope Lodge by making meals for them using their amazing kitchens and facility.  We’ve had some Mom’s Night Outs and Playdates with our kids to create cards to send to their patients welcoming them to our community.  Here’s a great way to reach out and help those around you, it’s an experience you will never forget! 

Here’s some info about the Hope Lodge…

Getting the right cancer care sometimes means traveling away from home, often to a cancer treatment facility in another city. The Hope Lodge provides temporary residence for patients who travel to area cancer treatment centers for daily outpatient treatment. At the Hope Lodge, cancer patients receive support from professionals, families, friends and other patients to help build the hope needed for their personal battle against cancer.  Currently there are 31 Hope Lodge Facilities available in the US that are funded by donations to the American Cancer Society, through donations and projects just like Small Hands Creating Hope project. 

Welcome to the Small Hands Creating Hope project!

We are so excited to be a part of this wonderful fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, and to be working with an incredibly talented group of bloggers who focus on creative and thoughtful activities for kids! Each of us has worked with our children, students or in our case even parents to create a craft that could be made by or for someone facing cancer. The projects in this book are stunning, and several include tutorials so that you can use to recreate the crafts at home with your own children or students!

Both of my children created this special greeting card for the Small Hands Creating Hope project.  This is an idea of a card that you can easily create for a loved one who’s going through cancer treatment or for patients staying at the Hope Lodge.  A full tutorial for our Greeting Card Project is included in the Small Hands Creating Hope Book.

Here’s a peek at what we created…

We are sending the ebook version of this book out to anyone who donates at least $15 to the American Cancer society. An email with the download link, as well as a second link that allows you to purchase a hard copy of the book for an additional $10.52 will be sent once we receive your donation. If you donate but do not receive this email for any reason, or if you have trouble with the download, email smallhandsproject at gmail dot com.The button below will take you directly to the our team page at the American Cancer Society, where you can make your donation.

Donate to the American Cancer Society
MaryAnne at Mama Smiles compiled this book as a way of celebrating thirty years of cancer survivorship. We are hoping to raise $3000 by July 4th. We are running a blog hop to celebrate and raise funds so that, in the future, thirty years of cancer survivorship will be the norm, not the exception! Learn about each of the bloggers who participated in the book by visiting each blog on their assigned dates – some of the bloggers are running celebratory giveaways, too!

14 May Mama Smiles
15 May Artsy Craftsy Mom
Rainbows Within Reach
16 May B. Inspired, Mama!
17 May Rainy Day Mum
Imagination Soup
18 May Inspiration Laboratories
19 May Experimenting Mom
20 May Mama Mia’s Heart2Heart
21 May NurtureStore
Mama Smiles
22 May Living Montessori Now
23 May Mess for Less
24 May Having Fun at Home and CraftoArt
25 May Outlaw Mom
26 May Angelique Felix and Sense of Wonder
27 May Sun Hats and Wellie Boots
28 May Duck Duck Octopus
29 May Smiling like Sunshine
30 May Mommy with Selective Memory
31 May One Perfect Day
1 June The Educators’ Spin On It
2 June Kids Stuff World
3 June Rainy Day Mum
4 June Teach Preschool
5 June Dirt and Boogers
6 June Creative Connections for Kids and The Golden Gleam
7 June Montessori Tidbits
8 June Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
9 June The Iowa Farmer’s Wife
10 June Scribble Doodle and Draw
11 June Learn with Play
12 June Kitchen Counter Chronicles
13 June CRAYON Freckles
14 June Glittering Muffins
15 June Wise Owl Factory
16 June Crafty Maa
18 June Lessons Learnt Journal
20 June Growing a Jeweled Rose
21 June Growing Play
23 June JDaniel4′s Mom

Small Hands Creating Hope
Thank you for your support!

Let’s start this summer by following the American Cancer Society’s Advice on
 Be Safe In the Sun , especially with our children!

Small Hands Creating Hope Project with Kids

We invite you to stop by our Parenting with Purpose post about Why to Encourage your child to be a part of a Project like this . Creating Hope with Kids  

Like this idea? Pin for later or share now with a friend!

About Kim Vij

Early childhood teacher, author, speaker and mom of 3. Kim shares ways to make learning fun and parenting an adventure by sharing developmentally appropriate activities.

Comments

  4. Carolyn Wilhelm says

    What a wonderful post with so much kind and thoughtful information included. Thank you for explaining this so well. You card project idea is easy to replicate and will help others know what to do in a difficult time! Carolyn

    Reply

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