A huge thankyou from Beads of Courage
Posted by IslaOsborne on December 22, 2011
Hugs all-round
I want to give a huge thank-you to all the amazing people who have donated their work to Beads of Courage this year.
In the six months since NZSAG have been working with The Child Cancer Foundation, we have donated over 1200 unique glass beads to Beads of Courage! That’s an amazing total, especially considering only 25 artists are currently partners in the program.
Donated beads range from traditionally lamp-worked, to fused and kiln-formed as well as beads created in the hot-shop. It is truly inspiring to receive donated packages and I feel privileged every time I open one.
For those of you who are not aware, Beads of Courage is a treatment program administered in New Zealand by the Child Cancer Foundation. Beads of Courage helps children through a very challenging experience. Each child with cancer is given a necklace with their name spelt in beads. They then add to their strand with specific coloured beads to represent every procedure they undergo. The beads document each child’s journey in a positive way. They help give a child the courage to take each difficult new step. Sadly, by the end of a treatment journey, children often have strands of beads longer than they are.
The program has recently been rolled out nationwide, and we need to find 75 glass artists willing to donate 75 handmade ‘milestone’ beads each year, that’s over 5,500 beads.
If you are interested in being a partner in this amazing program, contact me: Isla Osborne on isla.osborne@gmail.com. If you don’t regularly make beads, but have a few lying around the studio that you want to donate, just send them to me and I will make sure they reach their destination.
Isla Osborne 2 Wellpark Avenue, Grey Lynn, Auckland 1021.