Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Noahs Linens And The Magic Yarn Charities for a PRINCESS or SUPER-HERO



I found an article in an Alumni college magazine from a school that one of my girls attended. In the magazine, I read an article that touched my soul. The charity it highlighted makes wigs for cancer patients that look like "Princess hair." Maybe I liked this one as the hair is a "Rainbow" wig and reminded me of my mother and her costume shop.
 
As a child, I had many surgeries at a young age (click here for a post about that) so I can empathize with the fear that being in a hospital at a young age can bring up. With that history, I saved the article and have been thinking about getting a group together to make some of these wigs, maybe designing more for boys, and donating supplies as I have a TON of craft supplies that I am not using presently. 
 
The charity's name is The Magic Yarn Project and they also make "Jack Sparrow" wigs for boys. If you are interested in helping, they have a wonderful website you can link to above and it is very easy to manage with links to contact them and links if you want to donate items, money, time etc. 

I woke in the middle of the night the other night and had a thought of somehow providing dresses for the kids that get the wigs so that they can truly feel like princesses and give them a tiara as well. In the morning, I wrote on the top of the article the idea to contact Disney and see if they would be willing to donate the dresses and tiaras to go along with the wigs made by this charity. 
 

Flash forward two days. I had a meeting with a company that I have ties to in another city. I have not attended the meeting in many year as the distance to drive to it is long and I usually just get someone to give me the "cliff note" version of the meeting as it isn't worth 6 hours of driving to attend. 

I felt like I needed to attend the meeting so I drove by myself up and back on the same day to attend this meeting. Anyone who knows me would be shocked at that because I have a hard time sitting that long and had a migraine that night as well so it was VERY odd that I attended. 

The first thing they talked about that night was one of their charities which I heard in concept awhile back but I was SUPER excited when they started talking about this charity. They take old table clothes and fabric from weddings that may have been damaged and they have 100 seamstresses around the nation that sew "Princess dresses" from the discarded linens! 
 
They have teamed up with "Ronald McDonald House" and the "Make a Wish" foundation and have been distributing the dresses. More recently, they have been holding "events" where they have Disney Princesses come and recently "Prince Charming" showed up and they give the girls dresses, tiaras and scepters and give them "Princess" lessons on how to walk, sit, curtsy along with treats. Prince Charming even danced with a few of the Princesses! 

Not only do they make dresses for the girls, but they make capes for the boys. They have an event where they are making tons of mini capes for the ICU babies and bigger capes for the older siblings of those babies! I thought it was so wonderful.... 

I don't need to call Disney to get dresses donated, I just need to connect the two organizations that already exist to see if they would be willing to partnership with each other! 

I had also been thinking of something other than a larger wig for the boys in the chemo situation who have lost their hair and have come up with a knitted beanie that would cover the head and can be made to match the capes being made out of the used table and wedding fabrics! 


They make masks to match the capes which they make with several different designs on the back. How cool would it be if we could make a beanie with the mask knit right in it so that they could be a super hero and the beanie would cover the bald head! The colors could match the cape and the mask portion could be the color of the contrasting design on the back of the cape like the lightning flash etc. 



When you go to the wig website, you can see that they have all sorts of different wigs so if they saw the dress, they could make the wig to match! What little girl wouldn't LOVE a matching dress and wig! 

The linen company has a website (HERE) where you can order wedding linens but you can see how the lovely cloths work with the dresses. Both organizations have many people willing to donate their time. The wig charity even gets inmates to make them. They also have tutorials for others to follow to get involved. I really love the concept that people who have lots of down time can do this wherever they are and yarn is super cheap, especially from second hand stores or if you ask your friends on facebook or the local yard sale sites. Many people will donate it to a good cause. 
 
Truly, I am excited about maybe being able to put the two groups together and give the kids a "Whole" experience. This is something I would like to be involved in more in the future once I get my life back in order after dealing with my moms estate etc.  

It would be wonderful to have the kids enjoy a whole day as a Princess or Super hero and maybe end the day with being "Special Guests" at a concert where they can enjoy the entire day and feel special. 

There are so many generous and amazing people in the world coming up with these great ideas and making it happen. They are allowing people to be part of something that brings joy to fragile children!

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