The Courage of Children with Cancer Books 

       The members of Optimists International are united in the goal to love each child as our own. For over 90 years it has been our intention to go quietly about the business of "bringing out the best in kids."

       In 2003 Optimists International began a program called, " Children with Cancer Campaign". This campaign has a three-fold goal: to raise public awareness about this disease,  to provide these children with creative means to 'bring out their best", and lastly to raise funds for childhood cancer research.  Optimists International has pledged to raise one million dollars to help find a cure for childhood cancer.  To date $500,000 has been donated to Johns Hopkins Research Center.

       To further develop these goals in Wisconsin, Michael D. Shields, Governor-elect of the 62 Optimists clubs in Southern Wisconsin, began a collaboration with Suellyn Woodall, director of The Little Books that Could, to design a book-making project for children with cancer and their families.  This project titled: "Courage of Children with Cancer Books" has provided to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin age-appropriate book kits, Spanish/English instruction sheets, embellishments to evoke a personal response and a variety of styles from pop-up books to a beautiful hand-bound journal.

   The kits are designed to be used by the children independently. However, the book can be made with family and care-givers. Special book kits are available for siblings and close friends. Once a kit is selected and the book assembled it has the potential to be developed and expanded over the healing process as a documentation of courage and hope.

      This process of book-making appears to be just a simple low-cost art project, but it is grounded in sound philosophy. The kits are designed to evoke Heidegger's concept of the necessity to be authentic in order to heal the psyche, and of the universal search to find meaning in our suffering taught by Viktor Frankl.

      When a child is diagnosed with cancer the whole family is thrown into an alien world. There is a great need to find coherence. Becoming an "author" during this time can be a stepping stone to understanding what it means to struggle day to day with the real-world challenges of surviving cancer.  The anger, fear and confusion during this time often cannot be expressed verbally. Art is a child's natural language.  Art can provide a means of healing the grieving hearts and allow for becoming empowered in a situation that is in many ways out of control. This is profoundly normalizing for those undergoing processes that are isolating, frightening and painful.

      Optimism and resiliency develop when children can express themselves honestly. When this experience includes the whole family a documented visual history develops. Instead of siblings becoming emotionally cut-off from each other they are able to create a beautiful legacy of their shared struggle. The sibling can feel useful by maintaining the journal and documenting the treatment process for the family.

      A volunteer recently said that this project could be called an intervention process because "it strengthens the individuals assets, the assets of mind, body, spirit, creating more spirit." 

      Family and friends can contribute to the authenticity of each book by offering meaningful embellishments to the child as the book is developing.

      The Courage of Children with Cancer Books offers the services of a fine art photographer to photograph each child and/or the completed book.   A  CD of this photo documentation will be given to the family. The kits are hand-made from archival materials by youth to connect them with the nobility of children with cancer who "never give up."  

     To complete this project all children and families are invited to participate in an exhibition of the books to let the world see and read their stories. We are now in the process of developing a schedule of exhibition sites.   All books will be returned after the exhibit.

     This project has been designed and developed by Suellyn Woodall, artist and executive director of  The Little Books that Could. To learn more about this project go to the interactive bilingual website or contact Suellyn.

Michael D. Shields,  Optimists governor-elect, SWIS District, 007-08 and Suellyn Woodall, chair of the

Optimists International program, Children with Cancer Campaign, Swiss District , 2007-08.

 



Ann Krall, Art Specialist, Jill Wiench, Child Life Specialist, and Michael Shields.
Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Children's Cancer Ward.



Dylan Scoon, lead assistant  with Suellyn Woodal fund raising the project at the Racine Arts Council.



Children supporting Children with Cancer- These great volunteers
folded 1800 Little Books for the Optimists International conference
in Montreal July 2-8, 2007.



Michael D. Shields, Governor, SWIS District, 2007-2008, with Dwaine Sievers, Past Optimist International President
 and one of the pioneers of the Optimist Childhood Cancer Campaign, and Suellyn Woodall, chair, Childhood Cancer Campaign for Southern Wisconsin, 2007-2008.



"On behalf of the City of Racine, Mayor Gary Becker presented a proclamation to The Tuesday optimist Club of Racine, declaring June as Optimist International Childhood Cancer Awareness month.  Accepting for the club is Suellyn Woodall, chair-elect of the Childhood Cancer Campaign for Southern Wisconsin.  Mayor Becker observed that the wonderful part of Woodall's Courage of Children with Cancer Books is that it supports healing the trauma caused by this life-threatening disease.  This project records for the child, and all those involved, the spiritual and psychological strengths developed as they meet each healing challenge.  He is enthusiastic about Suellyn's global arts project being based in the Racine community.  Mayor Becker made a personal commitment to assist in the relocation efforts of "The Little Books that Could"."

Optimists from around the world created hand-made cards expressing messages of hope and love to send to children in cancer wards in Canada and the U.S.

 

The Tuesday Optimist Club of Racine sponsored a booth at the International Optimist Conference in Montreal, Canada in July, 2007. Pictured above are Donna Maldonado, president of the Racine, WI Tuesday Optimists, Suellyn Woodall, Chairperson of the Children with Cancer Campaign for the Southern Wisconsin District, Ronnie Dunn, President of International Optimists 2006-2007, and Michael D. Shields, Governor of SWIS District 2007-2008.