Beads of Courage
Beads of Courage provides innovative, arts-in-medicine supportive care programs for children coping with serious illness, their families and the health care providers who care for them. Through the program, children tell their story using colorful beads as meaningful symbols of courage that commemorate milestones they have achieved along their unique treatment path. For example, a red bead for each blood transfusion, a yellow bead for each night in the hospital, a star bead for surgery, a white bead for chemotherapy. Their collection of beads becomes a tangible record of their journey. Beads of Courage is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization founded in 2005. Their programs are now in 260 children's hospitals, supporting 60,000 children each year in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the U.K.
Thank you for your interest in woodturned bowl donations for Beads of Courage! These wonderful pieces of art become a sacred vessel for children to hold the numerous amounts of beads they will receive during their medical treatment.
How to Participate
Read this first!
- Please review the Beads of Courage AAW Woodturner Guidelines and Donation Options PRIOR to beginning the donation process. All instructions for donations are detailed in this document.
- Please understand that Beads of Courage does not have participating hospitals in every city, which means that direct hospital donation may not be an option for everyone. Even if there is a participating hospital in your area, Beads of Courage cannot guarantee that donations will be accepted (especially with the current COVID restrictions). In some cases, mailing your donation to the Beads of Courage headquarters in Tuscon may be the only option.
Register
- Prior to donating, all woodturners must register with Beads of Courage. This only needs to be completed once. When you register, you will be asked which option of donating you would prefer. There are only two options available for woodturned bowl donations.
- OPTION #1: Direct donation to Beads of Courage as a Dream Bowl donor (delivered by mail or local drop-off).
- OPTION #2*: Direct donation to a local Beads of Courage member hospital in your area (donor delivers after Beads of Courage connects donor to hospital contact).
*Please note that Beads of Courage cannot guarantee that there is a hospital in your area that will be able to accept your donations. Beads of Courage also kindly asks that you do not reach out to hospitals independently. Beads of Courage must be the initial point of contact between donor and hospital.
Important Forms
**Attention all direct hospital donors: Please complete the gift-in-kind form each time a donation is made. Beads of Courage will not be aware of your donation without this form as hospitals do not report donations back to the organization.
Questions
Please visit https://www.beadsofcourage.org/bead-bowls/ and direct all other questions to [email protected].