[Edited for 2023 re-release] Beads of Courage is an organization created to bring art into the healthcare setting as a way to strengthen resilience and improve the quality of life for children and teens coping with serious illness, their families, and the clinicians who care for them. Twenty years later, in 2023, we have established the Beads of Courage Program in more than 300 children’s hospitals worldwide. We are proud that we have transformed the treatment experience by bringing beads, as an art-based intervention, to the front lines of caring for children receiving treatment for cancer and other serious illnesses, simultaneously educating thousands of clinicians on the importance of aesthetic knowing for an improved sense of well-being and quality of life.
Hot Glass for Cool Kids 2: 20 Glass Beadmaking Tutorials for Beads of Courage by Soda Limes Times is timely as we celebrate the continued success of the art and humanity of lampwork artists worldwide. Together, we make a difference in the lives of children and families as we help them record, tell, and own their stories of courage through beads. It is through the generous donations of talented lampwork artists that we have the honor and privilege of giving beads as symbolic gifts to children coping with serious illness during critical moments of their treatment journey. Your donated beads keep nurses and other clinicians strong in a moment that is often filled with extreme despair, heartache, or decreased hope. In that moment, when a handmade glass bead is given, something happens that forever changes the child: A phenomenon that I describe as “spirit-lifting – which is life-saving in the moment.” Thank you for keeping the spirits of the children and families we support through Beads of Courage strong, for it is that strength of spirit from which we all derive our life-giving force.
Again, I cannot thank you enough for being an active participant in the preservation of humanity as we sustain the caring for children coping with serious illness through your donated beads – beads that serve as symbols of hope, honor, and courage. Beads of Courage is our organization, that together we tend to and nurture.
With tremendous gratitude,
Jean Gribbon, RN, PhD
Founder Beads of Courage, Inc.
President, Center for Arts in Nursing
Beads of Courage, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. EIN 20-2721500