Help ConKerr Cancer: A Case for Smiles

When Cindy Kerr’s son, Ryan, was diagnosed with cancer in 2002, she wanted to brighten up his hospital room so she began making pillowcases. She soon realized the difference these brightly colored pillowcases were making, so she began making pillowcases for the other children staying in the Oncology Unit at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Cindy’s pillow making idea took off and before she knew it, she had created the non-profit organization ConKerr Cancer. ConKerr Cancer’s mission is “helping children feel special while battling life changing illnesses.”

Currently, there are many ConKerr Cancer chapters around the nation. A local chapter of ConKerr Cancer was started in Waverly, Iowa by Brenda Cummer. After finding ConKerr Cancer on the internet, Cummer felt compelled to start making pillowcases for children with cancer as well. Cummer was able to talk to Cindy Kerr, the founder of ConKerr Cancer, and since then Cummer has become the regional coordinator for Iowa.

Cummer’s family has also been impacted by cancer. She lost her mother two years ago to leukemia and her mother-in-law is a breast cancer survivor. The goal she has for the Iowa chapter of ConKerr Cancer is to provide every child in Iowa that has been diagnosed with cancer a bright, cheery pillowcase.

“I do know that the little things like this make a big difference!” Cummer said.

Cummer, along with the help of many other sewing groups and other organizations, has been making pillowcases to donate to Children’s Cancer Connection for the past few months. These pillowcases have been given away at Camp Heart Connection and they have been given away to newly diagnosed children at Blank Children’s Hospital and the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. Recently, Cummer stopped by Children’s Cancer Connection to commemorate a milestone. She dropped off the 1,000th pillowcase that she’s donated to Children’s Cancer Connection.

“I chose to donate the pillowcases to Children’s Cancer Connection because the resources and help CCC provides to families and children can not be put into words,” Cummer said. “Children’s Cancer Connection is a wonderful organization! The camps provided to children and their families are great opportunities for families to connect.”

Nationally, since its start in 2002, ConKerr Cancer has provided over 300,000 pillowcases to children with cancer. The pillowcases have been made by thousand of volunteers from across North America and also in South Africa. If you would like to make pillowcases or find out where local drop off sites are, visit: http://www.conkerrcancer.org/regionaldirectory.html#Iowa for more information.