Beads of Courage signify kids' fight with health woes
By Alexis Blue ARIZONA DAILY STAR Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.10.2008
Born with a serious heart defect, Sofia Tonelli-Pepe has spent much of her early life in and out of the hospital. At just 5 months old, she underwent major surgery to repair a missing valve and a large hole in her heart. Complications from one operation led to another and a monthlong hospital stay. This Saturday, Sofia will make one of her first public outings at a fundraiser for Beads of Courage, a Tucson-based national charity that provides beads to children with serious illnesses or injuries to help document their medical journeys from diagnosis to recovery. Children who participate in the program receive different colored beads for different stages of treatment — a red bead for every blood transfusion, a yellow bead for every night spent away from home in the hospital, and so forth. Sofia, who is still earning beads for attending regular therapy sessions, will need another operation at 6 or 7 years old, said her mother, Christina Tonelli. She has already collected 412 beads, which hang on a strand above her crib. "She's so young, she's not going to know what she went through," said Tonelli, 40. "It's going to help her when she gets older to hold them in her hands and to see the journey that she went through at such a young age, and to feel a certain amount of pride for what she was able to get through." Sofia will celebrate her first birthday April 15.
Jean Baruch, a registered nurse and nursing Ph.D. student at the University of Arizona, started Beads of Courage in 2005 as part of her dissertation. The program is now in 44 hospitals in 22 states, and more than 5,000 children have participated, Baruch said. In Arizona, the program is available at Phoenix Children's Hospital and Banner Children's Hospital in Mesa. "They're basically small badges of honor," Baruch, 33, said of the beads distributed through the program. "It gives the kid a visible symbol that they then can translate into language so people will understand what they've been through."
Saturday's second annual Bead Inspired fundraiser, hosted by Radiance Medspa, will help raise money for Beads of Courage and the purchase of beads and program materials, Baruch said. The event takes place in the Plaza Colonial courtyard at the southwest corner of North Campbell Avenue and East Skyline Drive. For a $40 donation, guests will receive food, wine, and the opportunity to work with on-site artists to create their own beaded bracelets. Thousands of beads from all over the world will be on display, Baruch said. While Beads of Courage purchases most of its beads, some special handmade glass beads are donated by the International Society of Glass Beadmakers, said Carol Saker, a glass-bead and jewelry artist and the director of bead donations for Beads of Courage. Those beads are given to children for major treatment milestones or to represent particularly difficult or painful procedures, such as a bone-marrow transplant. A special purple-heart bead is given to children when they complete their treatment. If a child dies, the child's family is given a glass butterfly bead, Saker said. An average child will receive more than 500 beads throughout the course of treatment, Baruch said. Other Beads of Courage programs include a sibling program for brothers and sisters of sick children, a parent program, and an adult-patient pilot program in Hawaii, Baruch said.
Tucsonan Becky Kujawa, 39, said Beads of Courage helped her family to have some fun and relax in the face of tragedy. In February, her son Kolton suffered second- and third-degree burns to his face in a household accident and had to have three surgeries. It was the beads that got the 4-year-old talking about what happened, Kujawa said. “It's such an important therapy tool at that moment to get him to talk about it and not shut down," said Kujawa, a labor and delivery nurse at TucsonMedicalCenter. "I think later in his life it will represent who he is and what he's gone through."
● Alexis Blue is a freelance writer in Tucson.
http://www.azstarnet.com
Click on photo below for caption and larger image...
By Alexis Blue ARIZONA DAILY STAR Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.10.2008
Born with a serious heart defect, Sofia Tonelli-Pepe has spent much of her early life in and out of the hospital. At just 5 months old, she underwent major surgery to repair a missing valve and a large hole in her heart. Complications from one operation led to another and a monthlong hospital stay. This Saturday, Sofia will make one of her first public outings at a fundraiser for Beads of Courage, a Tucson-based national charity that provides beads to children with serious illnesses or injuries to help document their medical journeys from diagnosis to recovery. Children who participate in the program receive different colored beads for different stages of treatment — a red bead for every blood transfusion, a yellow bead for every night spent away from home in the hospital, and so forth. Sofia, who is still earning beads for attending regular therapy sessions, will need another operation at 6 or 7 years old, said her mother, Christina Tonelli. She has already collected 412 beads, which hang on a strand above her crib. "She's so young, she's not going to know what she went through," said Tonelli, 40. "It's going to help her when she gets older to hold them in her hands and to see the journey that she went through at such a young age, and to feel a certain amount of pride for what she was able to get through." Sofia will celebrate her first birthday April 15.
Jean Baruch, a registered nurse and nursing Ph.D. student at the University of Arizona, started Beads of Courage in 2005 as part of her dissertation. The program is now in 44 hospitals in 22 states, and more than 5,000 children have participated, Baruch said. In Arizona, the program is available at Phoenix Children's Hospital and Banner Children's Hospital in Mesa. "They're basically small badges of honor," Baruch, 33, said of the beads distributed through the program. "It gives the kid a visible symbol that they then can translate into language so people will understand what they've been through."
Saturday's second annual Bead Inspired fundraiser, hosted by Radiance Medspa, will help raise money for Beads of Courage and the purchase of beads and program materials, Baruch said. The event takes place in the Plaza Colonial courtyard at the southwest corner of North Campbell Avenue and East Skyline Drive. For a $40 donation, guests will receive food, wine, and the opportunity to work with on-site artists to create their own beaded bracelets. Thousands of beads from all over the world will be on display, Baruch said. While Beads of Courage purchases most of its beads, some special handmade glass beads are donated by the International Society of Glass Beadmakers, said Carol Saker, a glass-bead and jewelry artist and the director of bead donations for Beads of Courage. Those beads are given to children for major treatment milestones or to represent particularly difficult or painful procedures, such as a bone-marrow transplant. A special purple-heart bead is given to children when they complete their treatment. If a child dies, the child's family is given a glass butterfly bead, Saker said. An average child will receive more than 500 beads throughout the course of treatment, Baruch said. Other Beads of Courage programs include a sibling program for brothers and sisters of sick children, a parent program, and an adult-patient pilot program in Hawaii, Baruch said.
Tucsonan Becky Kujawa, 39, said Beads of Courage helped her family to have some fun and relax in the face of tragedy. In February, her son Kolton suffered second- and third-degree burns to his face in a household accident and had to have three surgeries. It was the beads that got the 4-year-old talking about what happened, Kujawa said. “It's such an important therapy tool at that moment to get him to talk about it and not shut down," said Kujawa, a labor and delivery nurse at TucsonMedicalCenter. "I think later in his life it will represent who he is and what he's gone through."
● Alexis Blue is a freelance writer in Tucson.
http://www.azstarnet.com
Click on photo below for caption and larger image...
