As a member of the American Association of Woodturners (AAW), I learned about the Beads of Courage program which was created to provide support to children with serious illness. Decorative beads are given to the children to symbolize each treatment they receive. For many children with extended treatment programs their string of beads can become quite lengthy and they need some way to store them. The American Association of Woodturners (AAW) has partnered with Beads of Courage to provide containers for the children's beads. The typical container is a woodturned cylindrical vessel and lid. I decided for my first venture to do dovetailed boxes with turned lids. I made five of them incorporating the Beads of Courage logo bead into the lids and recently delivered four of them to the Minnesota chapter of AAW for distribution to the Minnesota children’s hospitals. Beads of Courage is a wonderful program based in Arizona but now serving children in 260 hospitals in six countries. For more information about Beads of Courage you can visit the website: www.beadsofcourage.org.
Ed Downey
