A chance to join children and teens in the fight against chronic illness is available for a short time at St. Joe’s. Until Nov. 26, Art Club on the Hawk Hill campus is providing an opportunity for students to collaborate with Beads of Courage, a nonprofit organization focused on using art as a means of providing support and comfort for children and teens battling cancer or other serious illnesses.
Upon enrollment with Beads of Courage, every child and teen is given a string with beads that spell out their first name. Throughout their treatment, their healthcare provider gives them additional colorful beads that represent courage. As more beads are added to their string, they can use them to “RECORD, TELL, and OWN their stories of COURAGE,” according to their website.
Through the partnership between Art Club and Beads of Courage, students can pay $5 to carry two beads — one for them and one for a child or teen undergoing treatment for a serious illness.
After one week, the student returns one of their beads with an attached note for a child or teen who will receive it on a tough treatment day. The beads symbolize solidarity between the student and the recipient of the bead throughout the treatment.
The partnership first came about when Megan Eastman ’26, historian of Art Club, reached out to Beads of Courage to request help from the group in bringing their service to St. Joe’s. Eastman has participated in the project on her own in the past and wanted to share it with her peers.
“It’s really important to help them gain a sense of control to document their journey,” Eastman said. “A lot of times, when you have thousands of doctors appointments, thousands of surgeries, procedures, therapy, it can cause a lot of trauma for children, and being able to create a record of that is really helpful in processing. This program that we’re doing in collaboration with Beads of Courage just provides them a little piece that they can look back on.”
Having carried beads in the past, Eastman takes pride in offering hope to children by being someone they can relate to.
“I really enjoyed the idea of getting to give a child who’s going through something similar to myself a little glimpse at what it looks like when you get older,” said Eastman.
Monty Ojo ’27, treasurer of Art Club, said as a member of the executive board, she feels events like this show the strength of the St. Joe’s community.
“Doing this for our club just shows that not only do we want to work with others to help children, but it shows how diverse we are as a community and how much we care about our community,” said Ojo.
Brooke Lovelace ’26, vice president of Art Club, signed up to participate and to carry a bead and encouraged students to engage in the program, especially if they want to show support in a special way.
“It’s a unique program that is really exciting to work with, and I think it’s going to be a great way for people to do something different and outside of themselves,” Lovelace said.
Each bead order costs $5 and must be submitted via Venmo to Art Club by Nov. 26.
