Since my last post, we have been busy busy busy and hopefully today I will be able to update you and inspire you to join our mission if you haven't yet done so! Since September (when I last posted) we have made donations to our local hospitals, including Lurie Children's Hospital and St. Jude's Research Hospital's Midwest Affiliate. The hats that were donated to those two hospitals were created by a group of 7th and 8th grade Confirmation Candidates from my local church. We hosted a hat making party and they were able to get service hours for participating and to say that they were successful would be an understatement! These kids came to our event with lots of hats and supplies and ended up decorating over 50 hats for our kids! I was so impressed by their enthusiasm and caring attitude! These donations also included hats that were made by a group of the cutest 1st grade Daisy Scouts who were able to earn badges for their work. Their hats were so sweet as they practiced their sewing skills on them (they are far more talented with a needle and thread than I am that's for certain)!
Luke's Lids for Kids also received before Christmas a bag full of beautifully knitted headbands by a local supporter, Jeannie Martinez. She is incredibly talented and her works of art are just perfect for our kids. We were also contacted by a family from North Carolina who asked if they could donate some hats that they had purchased from a store closing sale - how many hats you ask - 500 hats I say to you! Yes, the Cavanaugh Family generously donated 500 hats to Luke's Lids for Kids; new baseball hats which our kids just love! I am truly grateful for their generosity especially as we had started to deplete our supply after Christmas. It was truly a blessing to see those hats on my porch after the start of the new year.
Most recently, LL4K made our annual donation to Special Days Camp winter camp. As I have shared before Special Days is an incredibly "special" place and I am grateful to be able to partner with them for winter and summer camps. Our donation to Special Days included hats from the Cavanaugh Family, my friends the Koral Family, my parents Jack and Deb Gyomory, my Aunt Jody Brusie, headbands from Jeannie Martinez, and hats from the LL4K supply. I know the kids had a wonderful weekend at camp and truly hope they enjoyed all the different hats that were sent to them.
What's coming up you ask? Well let me tell you! Next week we are hosting another hat making party with the 7th and 8th graders, I am very excited for that and I am sure it will be just as successful. I would like to be able to make a hospital donation in time for Valentine's Day, maybe with a few extra treats included. We are planning for our annual Special Days summer camp donation and I am considering hosting a hat making party for the campers during summer camp. I am hopeful I will be able to get that worked out as I would like to also bring my sister along to give the girls a glam make-over as well. If you might be interested in joining us for that or helping to supply donations please feel free to contact us! In general, we are always looking for new donations so please please spread the word about LL4K!
And I would like to end with one of the most important developments for the LL4K Family! My brother Luke finally has received his own Lid! He has been hounding me for one forever, so for Christmas I finally relented and made him a hat (pictured with his hat and my Goddaughter Natalie)! Also even more wonderful news for Luke and his family, their family of 3 will soon be expanding to a family of 4 as Ryan will be getting a new baby brother this spring! So this picture of their family will soon be including a sweet newborn coming this spring! Please send them lots of love, prayers, and congratulations!
As always thank you for following us and continuing to support LL4K! It is truly a labor of love for so many different reasons! I hope you find a reason to be inspired by the work we do and will want to join our mission to bring smiles to kids living with cancer. It's an ugly disease, it's a pain inducing disease, and it is a life changing disease but if you meet kids who are living with cancer you will see smiles through the tears and hope in their eyes. It's my prayer that this small gift we are giving them makes that smile a little bigger and that hope a little brighter. God Bless friends and please feel free to contact us at lukeslidsforkids@gmail.com.
