Bravery Bead Boxes, IWK (Jan. 2017)
In the spring of 2016, we were approached by the Nova Woodturning Guild to join them and the Mayflower Quilt Guild to collectively support the IWK Bravery Bead program. Through the Bravery Bead Program, children and youth experiencing a serious illness collect beads to represent various procedures and milestones in their treatment journey. Some of the participants sadly get quite large collections – and they need a place to store them. Our guilds were recruited to contribute handmade boxes or bags to replace the plastic bags being use for the patient collections.
Our members enthusiastically agreed and through the summer and fall, worked individually and in teams to create a varied collection of boxes, all of which were made with wood generously donated by East Coast Specialty Hardwoods. Thanks to Sarah and the team at East Coast!
Changes in the IWK team and scheduling challenges led to delays in delivery of our boxes. The original plan was that we would coordinate with the other guilds to do one presentation but that proved difficult to organize. I addition, the IWK team expressed a preference for keeping it simple and doing a hand off of our donation in front of their office. We decided to go it on our own but had some trouble getting to the right contacts. Fortunately, Bill Howes was able to make a few calls and arrange details for a meeting. On January 19, 2017 Stephen Parsons and Mary Elizabeth O’Toole met with Lisa Arsenault of IWK Child Services to present the AWA donation. Lisa and all the team were thrilled to receive the boxes and very impressed with the quality. In fact, the quantity, quality and variety were all much more than they expected; everyone was very impressed and appreciative.
Stephen Parsons, Vice Chair AWA and Lisa Arsenault, Administrator IWK Child Life Services with a few sample boxes (Mary Elizabeth took the pictures)
Here is just a sample of the 46(!) boxes we delivered. We burned the AWA logo on the bottom of all boxes as a statement of quality. No other advertising or marketing was included with our donation.
Thanks to all the people who made boxes and prototypes:
(LIST COMING ___ If there are any errors on this this list, please let Mary Elizabeth know so she can correct any errors or omissions)
This content is restricted to AWA members. If you are an existing user, please login. New users may register below.
