Courageous...

Tonight is the last night of my Beadmaking 1 class. Despite the fact that I'm sad about the 4-week class coming to an end, I'm excited about giving a bead to one of my students. She has no idea it's coming...

On the first night of this class, I gave a demo of making a plain donut-shaped bead. I don't teach bead decorations on the first night but I always decorate my plain beads with at least some dots here and there. I told my students why - it's because I donate all my class demo beads to the Beads of Courage program. I want the kids to get a bead that's "happy". If you aren't familiar with this wonderful program, please click on the link above and check it out.

Anyhow, I noticed that one of my students was listening to my talk about Beads of Courage with rapt attention. I also noticed that she had no hair and was wearing a head wrap. Last week I had a little chat with her about her cancer treatment, and decided that even though she isn't a "kid with cancer", going through this kind of experience definitely requires courage and she needs to have a purple heart for making it through the end of her treatment. Her course of treatment isn't finished yet - the radiation treatments are yet to come. I can't even imagine what she's facing, and I wholeheartedly applaud her for attitude and courage. She told me she wants to get better at making beads so she can make purple hearts for the kids in the Beads of Courage program. Wow!

Well, here's to you, Caren - I hope you like your purple heart bead!