Over 10,000 Beads!

We don't know the grand total for all of the studios and all of the artsists around the country, but between the Greater Detroit group and Lori Greenberg's Arizona group, we are sending over 10,000 beads to Beads of Courage! I am so proud to be a part of a wonderful and amazing group of artists.

Beads of Courage Challenge this Saturday!

This Saturday I will be in Brighton, MI, at Stanesa Glass Studio for the first annual National Bead Challenge.  Beads of Courage is an arts in medicine program for children with serious illness.  The good news is that the program has expanded to over 140 hospitals around the world. The success comes at a cost, however, as they are in great need of beads.

No problem - we're on it!  This Saturday, 8 glass studios around the U.S. (not to mention hundreds of lampworkers in their own home studios) will participate in creating beads for over 6 hours that day. Also at these events, there will be Sponsor Beads for sale for only $5.00; Sponsor Beads are fun beads and special notes of encouragement are written to be given with that bead to an ill child.

If you are on the east side of the state, please stop by and support a great cause.

Beads of Courage

First, if you are looking for my Bead Soup, please click here.

This is a long post, but please bear with me.

 Beads of Courage is a wonderful program.  It is an arts in medicine program for children with serious illness.  It is currently implemented in over 100 children's hospitals in the United States, Japan, and New Zealand. Every bead tells a story of strength, honor, and hope.

This weekend our local group rented the West Michigan Glass Art Center in Kalamazoo. They have an awesome set up, including a fusing area, a hot shop, and a lampworking area with 14 torches.  *sigh*  It is truly glass and fire heaven.

 Our only goal on Saturday was to make beads strictly for Beads of Courage.  We made nearly 179 beads.  We had such a great time.  I've posted some of the beads we made.  We made fish, pumpkins, snowmen, ice cream cones, hearts, and so much more! In fact, we actually ran out of kiln space before we ran out of ideas.

So many people to thank for this weekend.  First and foremost, HOWACO GLASS.  Jamey brought the entire line of Effetre glass for us to use.

In no particular order, here are my glassy peeps that participated in this fun event:
Barb Reed, Sandra Rathbun, Tracy Bell, Sandra Humphrey, Marion Walter, Deb Harlan, Dawn Ceccacci, Karen Klomparens, Annmarie Stanesa, Deb Kauzlarich, Robin Moore, Chris Fisher, Laurie Stover, Sharon Pribble, and Jill Daniels.

Thanks for reading this far.  This organization means a lot to me, and these crazy people even more.

Please Vote for Beads of Courage

We are currently in 13th place, but need to be in 10th by July 31st in order to stay in the running. Please take a moment to vote!

Through the Beads of Courage Program children coping with life threatening conditions received colorful beads each which symbolize the many treatments and procedures they overcome. Their Beads of Courage collection serves as a tangible, visible symbol of their accomplishments during a challenging treatment journey. Funding provided by Pepsi will help us provide the Beads of Courage Program as a source of support for children in 10 children's hospitals wishing to provide the Program as a source of psychosocial support. The Beads of Courage Program strengthens resilience and quality of life for children coping with cancer and other serious illness.

Pig Beads

Aside from a tragic first attempt shortly after I took my first lampworking class, these are the first one-eared pig beads I have tried. I made them for a special order for Beads of Courage.

Please Vote for Beads of Courage

Beads of Courage was recently nominated for an LP&G KitchenThinkTM ideation session and has made it to the finals and they need your vote!

What the heck is that anyway? Here is how LP&G describes it:
KitchenThink is an intensive brainstorming session where we come up with a ton of creative, doable ideas to achieve a client’s goals. Our clients have found KitchenThink to be effective, very valuable and a lot of fun too. One Tucson organization will have the benefit of our thinking to come up with ways to promote their cause, raise funds, boost awareness, educate the public… whatever their greatest need is.

So, what Beads of Courage needs from you? Either email LP&G, Inc. (givesback@lpginc.com) with your desire to vote for Beads of Courage, or vote on LP&G’s Facebook page.
Doesn’t that sound fun? We hope to bring more really great things from Beads of Courage, Inc. with the help of LP&G, Inc. if we win!

(reprinted from Lori Greenberg's blog. Check her out, the beauty of her beads are only surpassed by her generosity.)