Carry a Bead program lets local athletes help kids at Golisano

By Sarah Hall
Editor

When Baldwinsville’s lacrosse teams play Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse this weekend, before the battle on the field, they’ll offer their competitors a chance to do something truly great.
The boys and girls lacrosse teams are partnering with the Maureen’s Hope Foundation in the Carry a Bead initiative, which supports kids fighting long-term illnesses at Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital in Syracuse. At this weekend’s games — the boys play 1 p.m. Friday versus Liverpool and the girls 1 p.m. Saturday against C-NS — they’ll present Carry a Bead kits to the other teams so that they can participate, as well.
“After ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ our kids will walk across the field and give the other team the kits,” said Maureen’s Hope founder Susan Bertrand. “We’re saying, ‘Not only do we get to help these kids, but we want you to be a part of this, too.’ We want to have a ripple effect.”
Carry a Bead grew out of the Beads of Courage program, in which Maureen’s Hope began participating about six years ago. The program, developed by a nurse named Jean Baruch in Phoenix in 2003, gives each child a length of string and beads that spell out their first name to start, followed by colorful beads to represent a different milestone in their treatment — a chemo or radiation treatment, a surgery, a completion of a particular round of therapy, etc.
Carry a Bead allows others to share the patient’s burden by, quite literally, carrying a bead. Participants purchase matched bead kits, available for $20, from Maureen’s Hope (shipping and handling included). They carry one bead with them during a practice, game or other event (the Oswego Fire Department wore theirs on a recent call). They then send the beads they wore, along with a handwritten note of encouragement, in a package back to Maureen’s Hope, after which Bertrand will deliver it to a child at Golisano. The participants keep the matching bead as a reminder of the commitment they’ve made to the children fighting a life-threatening disease.
“You can look at that and it’s a reminder of that shared strength,” Bertrand said. “That’s solidarity at its finest.”
Bertrand said Baruch asked her in January to start a Carry a Bead program in the area. She was only too happy to oblige, bringing it first to the attention of the Syracuse Crunch hockey team. She gave a presentation to the team in March asking them to Carry a Bead during a practice to support the kids at Golisano. According to team COO Jim Sarosy, the players were eager to help.
“Watching [the team’s] reactions when Sue was explaining the program… you could just tell how passionate she was about the program. It’s not often you see, every eye was set on Sue. You could tell it hit home for them,” Sarosy said. “We get approached countless times for numerous charities, and they’re all worthwhile in their own way. But the way she was presenting it and how it was hitting home, the way she was articulating it — it was almost a responsibility for us to jump on board.”
Sarosy said the team wore the beads at a practice, then filled out cards with a message to the kids. Two weeks later, the players themselves joined Bertrand as she delivered the packages to the hospital. Sarosy said the experience made an impression on the team.
“One of the other mothers brings food for the nurses and families and some of the patients. She asked me if any of the players would be interested in volunteering. So I asked one of the rookies if he wanted to go. I barely got the sentence out before four vets signed up, too,” he said. “This is something that will stay with these guys, even when they go off to other markets. Hopefully they’ll start it as they go on to different markets and continue to grow this program.”
While Bertrand certainly wants the program to grow — she hopes to take it to several professional teams, from the New York Giants to the Atlanta Braves, where Baldwinsville native Jason Grilli pitches — she wants to see it make an impact closer to home, as well.
“We want to get Carry a Bead to expand, but we’re going to start in our hometown,” she said.
That’s why she approached Baldwinsville Central School District Athletic Director Chris Campolieta about bringing the kits to some of Baker High School’s teams. Campolieta said he was pleased to bring the program to Baker’s coaches.
“Cancer has affected just about everybody,” he said. “How do you not want to help a cause like that?”
It made the most sense to start the program with the lacrosse teams.
“This is kind of a pilot,” Campolieta said. “We’re going to try it with these teams, boys and girls lacrosse, and see how it goes. It’s pretty easy with that. It’s a pretty intimate setting with warm-ups and everything before the game starts.”
But Campolieta said it’s likely the program will expand into next year’s seasons as well; the district is looking into doing the Carry a Bead program with its football and soccer teams.
“Any sport would be able to benefit from this,” he said.
Campolieta noted that neighboring districts were happy to help spread awareness and participate in Carry a Bead, as well. He said he spoke to Liverpool Athletic Director Ari Lieberman and North Syracuse Athletic Director Tim Bednarski about the program during a scheduling meeting, and both were eager to have their districts participate.
“They were all for it. They thought it was great,” he said. “And it just so happened the games work.”
Campolieta said Carry a Bead helps to emphasize the community that exists among local athletes.
“I think people think, at the varsity level, especially, you’re there to win and compete, and that’s it. But in our league, we’re very close with one another. We’re a community,” he said. “It’s nice to come together for a common mission or goal. There is a little victory between all of us when we’re helping out a kid who’s suffering from cancer, prior to when the ball’s tipped or faceoff, and here we go. It’s a great way to get them to take a step back and look at what we have in common. The common goal is a bigger victory in a situation like this.”
Bertrand said the kits for the first few teams will be paid for thanks to a sponsorship from Oswego Federal Credit Union. She said she’s eager to get more teams on board.
“There are seven hospitals in New York state that have this program and 270 in the world,” she said. “There are so many people involved, but there are not enough beads to share with all of the kids. So if we get a lot of people and all of the kids here are taken care of, we can send them out west.”
The goal of the program is to reach as many kids as possible.
“Little things can go such a long way,” Sarosy said. “I had my eyes opened to it—my goodness, what an impact it makes. It would be glorious to see that expanded.”
Campolieta agreed.
“The more you get it out there, the better,” he said. “You’re putting a smile on a kid’s face while they’re going through treatment. In a situation like that, you need something to make you happy. I’m looking forward to seeing where we can go with this.”
Bertrand said she wants people to understand how meaningful the beads are to kids going through treatment.
“We meet kids with hundreds of beads. They love their beads. They mean so much to them. Some of them have 250 beads — ‘this is from my surgery,’ ‘this is from a Crunch player,’ ‘a B’ville lacrosse player thought of me,’” she said. “Whether it’s a B’ville lacrosse player or a Syracuse Crunch player, when those kids get that package in the mail, it means so much to them to think, ‘Hey, that player was thinking about me.’”
For more information about the Carry a Bead program or to sign up your team or organization, contact Susan Bertrand at [email protected].