Case For Smiles- Northwest Ohio Chapter

ConKerr Cancer started when Cindy Kerr’s son was diagnosed with cancer in 2002 and she began making pillowcases to brighten up his hospital room and to put a smile on his face. He loved it and so she began making pillowcases for other children on the Oncology Unit at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.Since then the pillowcase project, A Case for Smiles, has grown in amazing ways. We have provide

d nearly 490,000 pillowcases made by thousands of volunteers from across North America and in South Africa. School groups, sewing circles, church groups and fabric stores have all pitched in and are making pillowcases for the kids. An exciting new program has been to take fabric and sewing machines to hospitals and sew with the patients and their families.ConKerr Cancer has been able to make amazing progress towards fulfilling our goal of making hospital stays as pleasant as possible for chronically ill children and their parents. Simultaneously the pillowcase project has fostered a spirit of community and volunteer service in communities across North America. Unfortunately the number of sick children never ends, and we must continue to expand our efforts to help brighten patients’ lives and raise awareness about childhood cancer. A chapter of ConKerr Cancer serving Toledo and Mercy Children’s hospitals has
been started by Catawba Island resident Linda Peiffer. After reading about ConKerr Cancer in Family Circle magazine, Peiffer felt compelled to start making pillowcases for children with serious illnesses as well.