Beanies for Baldies

I recently received an email from my friend Polly who wanted to share an Etsy shop run by a young man here in Middle Tennessee. His shop, and mission, was one that touched my heart and upon reading more and more about Preston, I kinda fell in love with him just a little :)

 Meet Preston: Unfortunately, he has never know life without cancer but will never let it get in the way of living life. Preston was diagnosed with cancer in his white blood cells (Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis) at 5 months old and battled it for a little over 5 years. 8 months after his diagnosis, his dad was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and battled for 8 years before his family lost him in April 2010. In August 2011, Preston was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma and began treatment in September 2011. After a few weeks, his hair fell out and he asked his mother to teach him to make hats.

His mother took him to the fabric store and let him pick out a pattern and some fleece. He made himself a couple of hats and then informed me that he wanted to make hats for the kids at the cancer center and continue to do so after his treatment is over. Within a week, word had spread like crazy among his family, friends, and friends of friends. He has already sent 65 hats to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital (in Nashville) and 45 to Denver’s Children’s Hospital, in less than four months of opening his shop, Beanies for Baldies.
Here’s the amazing part: Each hat in his shop is $5. With the purchase of one of his cute hats – you receive yours and he uses the proceeds to make FOUR hats to send to a children’s hospital.

Let me say that one more time… $5 (plus $1 shipping) will help 4 children living with or surviving cancer – bringing a little smile to their faces and warmth to their lives.

If you know my own personal story, you know that I lost my granddaughter way too young. You also probably know that my father has been battling cancer for over a year. When you add the two of them together, this little boy just pulls at my heart strings, and since I know that almost everyone knows someone battling cancer – I bet he’ll tug at yours just a little bit, too.

Disclaimer: Beanies for Baldies did not compensate me for this post in any manner. This is simply a message that I felt led to share.