Beads of Courage, El Tour de Tucson a partnership of love and togetherness

Join Beads of Courage for the Courage Rally in support of El Tour de Tucson

Join Beads of Courage for its Courage Rally, 3 – 7 p.m., Nov. 16, 3301 N. 1^st Ave, Tucson, providing live music, a food truck, local beer from MotoSonora Brewery and good vibes while you pick up your Carry a Bead kit to carry with you during El Tour de Tucson.

Beads of Courage is a 501 (c) (3), launched in 2005 in Tucson by Jean Gribbon. The non-profit provides arts-in-medicine programs for children coping with serious illness, their families and the clinicians who care for them. Beads of Courage provides a compassionate, creatively colorful means to honor and document the courage of hospitalized children and teens’ as they undergo medical treatment. Since its inception, the non-profit has transformed the bedside experience within 300 member hospitals worldwide.

Beads of Courage also offers various other programs and participatory events, like the Courage Rally and the Carry a Bead Program for individuals, communities, businesses and organizations to raise awareness and share encouragement. The Carry a Bead program provides a meaningful way for communities to show support of kids coping with serious illness.

By carrying out an act of courage like riding in El Tour de Tucson, hiking a mountain or just doing an activity like going to a concert or doing a public good, you can return one of two beads with an outcome message of encouragement which will be delivered to Beads of Courage children in Tucson, Tokyo and hundreds of hospitals in between.

Tucson to Tokyo Beads of Courage connection

Meet Kelly Raffetto Godbout, Shine on! Kids board member in Japan and an advisory board member for Beads of Courage International relations and committed Carry a Bead Courage Crew member. Kelly’s commitment to support hospitalized children began in Tokyo, Japan over two decades ago, with the hospitalization of a friend’s child who was battling cancer.

At the time, hospitalization in Japan meant a long stay in the hospital to control the spread of disease, even if the illness wasn’t known to be contagious. For Kelly’s friend, Kimberly Forsythe, and her son Tyler, who was battling cancer, this meant months in a Tokyo hospital which at the time provided no emotionally therapeutic programs for children.

In honor of her son’s death, to help improve the hospital experience for children in Japan, Kimberly created Shine on! Kids in 2006, to provide evidence-based hospital programs for children in Japan. Kimberly searched for organizations who could deliver emotional support therapies in Japan, when she discovered Beads of Courage.

When Kimberly discovered Beads of Courage, Jean invited her to Tucson which was facilitated by Kelly. At the time, Kelly and her family were residing in Tokyo as her husband was president of Nike, Japan but the family had a second home in Tucson, now their permanent home, where her husband grew up. Upon visiting Beads of Courage in Tucson and learning details of the program, Kimberly brought the program to Japan where it has positively impacted thousands of hospitalized Japanese children and their families.

Join the movement pick up your Carry a Bead kit today.