A Fairy Tale to Save Kids

Once upon a time, a little boy north of Detroit was diagnosed with cancer.  His brave mom and dad shared their family's journey far and wide, and so did his nanny.

Once upon a time, a tiny baby in upstate New York added that little boy to her nightly prayers under the guidance of her mommy, who was friends with that little boy's nanny.

For a year, that little girl faithfully added the little boy to her nightly prayers, even though she, her mommy, and her daddy had never met him, his parents, or his nanny.  And then, one day, Emelia's mommy had very very sad news:  Ryan had passed away and had gone to heaven.  Emelia was still very little, and she knew this was very sad news even if she didn't fully understand all that it meant.  She had a very big heart inside her tiny little body and her heart had already decided to love Ryan.  And, because she loved him, Emelia insisted on still praying for Ryan every night before she drifted off to sleep.  Every year on Ryan's birthday and on Ryan's angelversary, Emelia and her mommy buy special balloons and send them off to Ryan.  And every Christmas, when they light candles in their window for the souls of loved ones lost, Emelia makes sure that there's a candle for Ryan.

Our story isn't over, though, because fairy tales have happy endings.  Emelia is almost 7 now.  She's asked her mommy and daddy a lot of questions about Ryan and about kids with cancer.  She's come to understand that there's a lot of work and research which needs to be done so that kids with cancer have happier outcomes than Ryan did.

Once upon a day last year, a radio station in Emelia's town was doing an on air fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  Emelia's mommy explained to her that the money being raised would help kids like Ryan feel better.  Emelia's great big heart inside her still little body wanted to help, too.  That afternoon, Emelia's mommy took her to the radio station, where Emelia handed over all the money that was in her piggy bank.  She had saved $11.85  and she wanted every last penny to be spent helping kids like Ryan.

Emelia's mommy and daddy were so proud of their generous and compassionate little girl that they told some of their friends what Emelia had done.  Those friends were so inspired by Emelia's generosity that they decided to match Emelia's donation.  Those friends told their friends who told their friends.  Some people even multiplied Emelia's gift by 10, and by the next morning more than $1000 had been donated to St. Jude just because of Emelia and her beautiful, loving, generous heart.

Once upon a this morning, that same radio station in that same town started a radiothon fundraiser for that same St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  And that same extraordinary little girl once again decided that all the money she'd saved in her piggy bank needed to be given away to help kids like her friend, Ryan. 

And so, once upon a today, each of us has the opportunity and challenge to write the happy ending for this tale.  We can match (or multiply) Emelia's gift of $13.73 to St. Jude.  In so doing, we write more than just a happy ending to this little tale...we help write happy endings for children who might not otherwise get them.  St. Jude is a leading research facility for pediatric cancer, and they freely share their research results with other researchers in order to further ALL research.  Families who come to St. Jude for treatment are NEVER billed.  Ever.  Our gifts to St. Jude write happy fairy tale endings for years to come.

If you'd like to help write a fairy tale ending with Emelia, please CLICK HERE to donate.  Select "Other" and enter the amount you'd like to give.  Emelia gave all she had, $13.73.   Once you've done that, leave a comment so we know...that's the only way we can roughly keep track of how Emelia's gift will multiply!