Michael has been busy with the end of school and the beginning of summer and one of the things he's been the most busy with is making new bracelets! As always, it seems like I have blinked and half a year has gone by, but we are on track when it comes to our bracelet making production! Here are the highlights of our summer so far:Michael made a special bracelet for his amazing pediatrician, who raises money for cancer research herself each year with the Ride to Conquer Cancer for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.
As many of you know, Michael starting making bracelets after his big brother passed away and inspired after having read a book by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to do what we can to help others and to love everyone as equals. I speak often about how I witnessed the Toronto van attack and of course, we live far too close for comfort to where the Danforth shootings took place, so I feel strongly that we all need a little more Michael in our lives. His heart and desire to make a difference in the world keeps me going.
As many of you also know, Michael is an actor, like his big sister, and so I was able to hear of and bring the kids to their very first "Love In" at Withrow Park, hosted and founded in part by Steven Mann of Mann Casting. I have met his mother many times over the years, but only know Steven by reputation and, of course, as Gloria Mann's son lol. As a mother of a son with a big heart myself, I have a good understanding of just how proud she must be of her son as well. The last I heard on the subject they are going to become a registered charity and what an amazing accomplishment that is! If you want to learn more, look up 416 Light Up The Night on Facebook.
As I type this we are only a few days out from Micheal's big brother's birthday, which was on Wednesday this week. He would have been 22 this year. It's always hard for me in the weeks leading up to David's birthday and I find busy work keeps me focused. So as I like to do, I made treats for our first responders (This time cupcakes for the police officers of 54 Division). While we were dropping off the cupcakes, Michael dropped off his business card at the same time and the kind officer behind the desk donated a toonie on the spot! Later that evening we received a pleasant call (while Michael was filming) that the officer had organized some donations for us to pick up the following day. I'm so moved. With each encounter my admiration and appreciation for our men and women in uniform only increases. (We brought them Timbits the next day to go with the cupcakes lol).
Suddenly, our new grand total has reached $160! At $2/bracelet, that means Michael has made close to 80 bracelets (well... closer to 60 in reality thanks to the generosity of donors who wanted to donate more than the toonie for the bracelet). We have finally called and made an "appointment" to drop off Michael's donations at The Hospital for Sick Children on Michael's upcoming birthday in two weeks.
For now though, he is off to be a kid, camping for a week with his Grandma, Papa and cousins. He'll have fun playing in the dirt and swimming in a lake and leaving the cares of the city behind!
As always, if you would like to donate to Michael Helps Kids, please feel free to reach out! I'd love to hear from you even with a kind word of encouragement and support. We take donations of spare change (100% of all money is given directly to Michael's charity of choice - this time Sick kids) and we also greatly appreciate donations of beads or other bracelet making materials.
A great big THANK YOU! to all who have already contributed to making Micheal Helps Kids such a great success to date! 💕💖
