A local mom spent months in the hospital with one of her three young sons was diagnosed with cancer before he was even 2-years-old. Of all the gifts they ever received throughout his treatment, cards brought the most joy as they brightened up the hospital room windows and walls.
Melissa Wiggins has no doubt been an inspiration for others dealing with pediatric cancer. She sat down with Ybeth Bruzual to talk more about the inspiration for her card club, Cannonball Kids' Cancer, that's gone global!
Ybeth: Oh yes! It's Valentine's Day, time to talk about love and cards, this time of year a lot of people exchange cards and Melissa you are here with us to talk about a very special card club.
This started because one of your young children got diagnosed with cancer and one of the things you ended up getting was? Not just the gifts and the food, but people wanting to do something for your little one and your family, but those cards meant so much.
Melissa: They did and they decorated our room, you know, all of the windows and we'd spend months in there and they were all over the windows and the doors and it was the only thing that Cannon would actually look at. He never interacted with toys or kids or child-like during that process so for us it was a highlight. And it just seemed like the next step for us until he started to get better.
Ybeth: So people reach out to you actually have- this is called the Cannon Ball Kids Cancer Club. And people can actually sit and make cards so this time when everyone's sending out cards to their loved ones or boyfriends or girlfriends or husbands, wives... you can actually make a card for a child who's got cancer and these cards are spread throughout the country?
Melissa: Yes. Now we have 32 states in America that have card clubs- it gives me goose bumps, and we have 8 countries in the world that are doing card club right now. Hong Kong, Israel just had one; they're all over the place. It's just amazing.
Ybeth: So somebody reaches out to you and then you do what?
Melissa: I send them a package with the information and each person that makes a card donates 5 dollars and that money all goes toward pediatric cancer research- we're trying to fund brain cancer research project right now- and the cards come back to me and we distribute them to roughly about 50,000 kids in hospitals right now battling cancer around the United States.
Ybeth: And you've seen this first hand. Because you're a mom to 3 very young children. You've got a set of twins and you've got Cannon- who, many of us have seen around town at different events and he's really made a comeback and you're opportunity to spread the love is with these cards. Do they have to look any certain way? Do they have to be real fancy?
Melissa: No! I mean, I have put my kids' hands in paint and had paint on there and I've seen some really fancy, amazing ones... but I love the simple ones. I say keep it simple. Make it a family thing. Make it a bible study things. Make it something with your school. Just simple, people getting together for the community and, you know, for me it's creating that service-orientated children that I want to raise.
Ybeth: And also, too, Melissa, I think this is fun because you can actually hold a greeting card event at your house or maybe for a child's school project with like the classroom or some special group.
Melissa: Yeah, I mean, I've had some small events where it's just church clubs or a couple girl friends have got together with a bottle of wine and done it. And there have been ones that have been like a couple of hundred people doing it.
Ybeth: Ok. So they make the cards, and send them to you and then you send them to children who are sick with cancer. Melissa, thank you so much.
For more on Cannonballing Cancer or how you or a group can get together to make these greeting cards for children suffering from cancer go to: www.cannonballkidscancer.org