Hope Bracelets

Vital Stats

Katey S

San Marino, CA

  • people helped350
  • People Doing It 50

The Problem

A hospital is not a home. I cannot even begin to imagine the emotional strain that I child must go through who has to miss Trick-o-Treating because of an illness or injury while his or her classmates and family prance around in the night gathering free candy. I desperately wanted to help them. I wanted to give them something. Something to ease their pain. I wanted to give them Hope. I was in my bathroom when I glanced down and saw a friendship bracelet that I had received when I was eleven. A rush of warm memories of swimming in a lake and walking through the courtyard came into my mind. I began to wonder just how powerful such a tiny bracelet is. At the time I was the Events Coordinator for the San Marino High School Key Club, the one who organizes all volunteer events that the members attend to get forty hours by the time they graduate. I constructed a plan to inspire some hope and warm feelings for the children of the Los Angeles Children's Hospital with a simple gift.

Plan of Action

After playing email tag with the Volunteer Coordinator at the hospital, I got to work on my Hope Bracelets, In the beginning of September, I started braiding like a maniac, weaving as many as I could a day. I then realized that this was a perfect opportunity for the Key Club members to get involved in an indubitable, imaginative, and inspiring service event. So not only did I serve as the connection between the school and the hospital by writing emails daily to the Manager of Volunteer Resources of the hospital, I also organized a school-wide bracelet workshop. In addition to making sure the event went smoothly, I provided the supplies like string and beads from my own money, coordinated with the President of the Key Club, set up the event in a designated classroom, taught members different bracelet-making techniques, counted the Hope Bracelets, and delivered them to the hospital where they were immensely appreciated. Over 50 members attended the Hope Bracelet workshop and over three hundred bracelets were made.
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