Collecting Crayons For Sick Children
By
Bonita Wilborn
Mother-Daughter team, Tanya and Breanna Welch of
Scottsboro set about collecting crayons for sick children after discovering the
need for them was so great.
On April 27, 2019, Jason Welch (husband of Tanya and
father of Breanna), took part in the Casting and Catching fishing tournament,
an event implemented to raise money and awareness for children with congenital
heart defects. Jason also attended the
banquet that followed the tournament and came home with an information sheet
about Children’s Hospital and all the supplies they use and need. After reading over the information sheet and
seeing items listed there, Tanya said to Breanna, “We’ve got to do something
about this, it’s touched my heart to see that they use something that we take
for granted each day, and they go through that many each week and each year.”
So at her mom’s bidding, Breanna began to make people
aware of their project. “We started
spreading the word,” Breanna explained.
“I started announcing it at church, we got flyers made, Casting and Catching
added it to their Facebook page, it even spread to Jason Simpson (WHNT TV
Channel 19) in Huntsville, and it just went from there.”
Tanya and Breanna’s efforts gained Children’s Hospital
30,204 crayons, 225 coloring books, 43 cans of play dough, 23 packs of
stickers, two sketch pads, and six bottles of bubbles.
Breanna stated, “It was just about helping the
hospital that has helped so many in our community. Just from our church, we’ve had two young
people go there. It’s just a way to give
back to someone who’s helped families in our lives.”
As the donations continued to roll in, the Welch women
stored the supplies in an upstairs room of their home, where they kept them
separated with like-sized boxes together and inventoried so that they had a
running total of items received. As the
projected August 7 delivery date drew near, for Children’s to receive the
donations, Breanna called the hospital officials and arranged an appointment
time. “I don’t think she realized just
how many boxes of crayons we were bringing with us,” Breanna added.
“One thing I didn’t know when we first started was
that the crayons have to be brand new boxes, because of all of the kid’s immune
disorders,” she said.
Although this year’s drive began in mid-May, the plan
is to start next year’s drive in February 2020, so that the Casting and
Catching tournament in April can be a drop off/collection finale for the 2020
drive.
According
to the supply list, Children’s Hospital of Birmingham uses about 4,000 crayons
per week, which adds up to 208,000 crayons every year.
“I’d
like to thank everyone that helped with the crayon drive,” Breanna
commented. “Even if they didn’t donate
crayons or other items, but just prayed for us or thought about us, that
support was very important. They say it
takes a village, and it does. It takes a
community to help out like this, and that’s what we got; we got a lot of
community help. The Lord was speaking to
us, but at the same time, he was speaking to everyone else that helped us and
prayed for us. We wouldn’t have been
able to have raised all of that on our own.”
In
conclusion, Breanna said, “This was a very touching thing to do. We’ve had people from our church and our
community that had to go there, so it was a touching feeling to be able to give
back. The crayons are just one of the
less expensive items that the hospital doesn’t have to buy now. Our delivery will cover their crayon needs
for about eight weeks. It puts a little
relief on the hospital, and it gives us a good feeling that we could help
someone who needed it.”
The
first crayon drive is now in the history books, but donations will be accepted
year-round. To donate crayons or other
children’s item throughout the year, you may contact Breanna Welch at 256-609-4595.
