A young girl raising money for terminally ill children with leukemia were devastated when the money they collected and items for their project were stolen from a car on Thursday. The money way intended to help cancer patients at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital.
Memphis, TN (PRWEB) December 4, 2004 -- A burglary on Thursday from children raising money for other children stricken with leukemia has shocked parents across the nation.
Jodie Shaw is now spending much of her time responding to news media and talk show hosts because of the media interest from all over the country.
Shaw and her infant daughter Abbi (a leukemia patient), 2, were running errands on Thursday, Dec. 2 when her locked car was broken into while she was in a post office. Financial donations, items of jewelry that had been ordered by donors, and catalogs for potential donors to use for placing orders were all taken, along with her own Christmas presents she had just purchased that day.
I was devastated," said Shaw, who is struggling with the challenges that come by having a young child with cancer.
Shaws niece, McKenzie Johnston, 11, began the project known as Kenzies Cause" (http://KensiesCause.com) to help children suffering with cancer. She makes over 20 different jewelry items, each named for a specific child being helped in the project. The jewelry comes with the name of the child, a picture, and information about that child so the donor will have personal information about the child they are helping. The children are patients at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.
The jewelry made by McKenzie was in the car that was broken into, and it has broken their hearts, according to McKenzies grandmother, Jeanne Johnston.
McKenzie worked so hard on this project and were so excited to be helping the children they felt so bad for. Its hard for kids to know what to do to help in situations like this, and making the jewelry really filled a great need for them. McKenzie said she wants to help raise enough money to cure cancer. These kids are so sweet," said Johnston.
So far the group has raised over $4,000, according to Johnston.
The loss of money and the jewelry has hurt the cause, but the greatest blow was the loss of the catalogs. The group just had them printed to hand out to businesses that were planning to ask employees to place orders and help the effort.
The loss of those future orders is our greatest loss because of this," said Johnston.
The group is looking for help from the public to continue the drive to raise funds. They are hopeful to replace what was lost and resume the effort. A generous donor has already come forward who will pay to reprint the catalogs, so they are hopeful other businesses will be willing to permit them to drop catalogs off so employees can select items and donate.
We also want to let people know how important it is to donate blood platelets and blood. These little children need weekly transfusions and without those donations they wouldnt be able to do that. We also need people to go in and have their bone marrow tested so they can be on the list for bone marrow donation," said Shaw.
Anyone wishing to help in any way is asked to contact Jeannie Johnston at 636-475-6180 or e-mail mckenzian@hotmail.com.
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Contact:
Jeanne Johnston
636-475-6180
mckenzian@hotmail.com
Jodie Shaw
901-848-5232
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