In this week’s episode of The UpBeat Podcast powered by CoachArt, our Executive Director and host Greg is joined by Kendell Hardy, a grandmother, HR resource professional, and last year’s CoachArt Bay Area volunteer of the year.
Kendell has been a great friend of CoachArt, teaching many children sewing and cooking, two passions that she found at a very early age. She’s here to tell us how she got started, how much she enjoys volunteering with CoachArt students, and how giving your best to someone else helps bring out the best in you.
In our episode, Kendell shares a wonderful story about her time with A Case For Smiles, where she made fun, unique pillowcases for children to spruce up their hospital rooms. Here at CoachArt, one of our main goals is to get people excited about helping others, wherever they are across the nation. As Greg states in our episode, we strive to highlight as many resources as possible that are out there across the country for children and families impacted by chronic illnesses.
Kendell’s story got us thinking about other meaningful contributions people can make to families coping with chronic illness that are a little bit outside the box and we wanted to share some of our favorites:
— You can donate your hair! Wigs for Kids will use your hair to make wigs for children experiencing hair loss, giving them back important self-esteem.
— You can make artwork. Various places, including the Art@Hospital program through the White Feather Foundation, aim to make hospitals more relaxing, soothing places to spend time by installing donated artwork. Many individual hospitals also have their own specific artwork donation policies, like Boston Children’s Hospital.
— You can take photographs. Like other art-related charities, Healing Photo Art strives to beautify the hospital environment. They “place large, framed photographs of nature and beautiful places around the world in hospitals to give comfort and hope to patients and their families.”
— You can make a quilt. Quilts for Kids is a marvelous nonprofit “dedicated to transforming fabrics into patchwork quilts to comfort children facing serious illness, trauma, abuse, and natural disasters.”
Know some other great ways to give unique donations to children and families in need? Have some questions? Head on over to The UpBeat private Facebook group!
If you have a child that may qualify for CoachArt programs, visit: CoachArt.org.
