14th ANNUAL HOLIDAY STOCKINGS
FOR CHEMOTHERAPY PATIENTS PROJECT

 

 

 

THANK YOU to everyone who helped out this year!


Our Mission


Our Mission is to brighten the holiday season for our adult chemotherapy patients. Going through chemotherapy can be tough enough. Imagine going through chemotherapy in the midst of a bustling holiday season when everyone around you is shopping and having fun. Michigan winters are dreary enough without adding chemotherapy to the mix.

Over the past 13 years, our group of very busy volunteers (the Holiday Elves) have provided in excess of 6,600 hand-sewn stockings & mittens to our chemotherapy patients as they are seated in the Infusion Centers. In 2012 our volunteers made & filled 600.

We have seen years disappear from the faces of patients opening their stockings or mittens and pulling out item after item with a grin. We have received hundreds of thank you notes and e-mails telling us how fun & meaningful this gesture is. Some folks have come to look forward to this surprise every year. Other patients tell us that receiving that stocking was a gesture that came at just the right time.

A sample of patients' reaction:

"I’m a cancer patient here at UofM . My infusion was Monday. During infusion I received a wonderful surprise, a BIG STUFFED holiday stocking. It meant so much to me. My ANGELS  were with me. THANK YOU SO MUCH for the thoughtful stocking and for ALL that you do for us patients here at U of M."

"I just want to thank you so much for the Christmas stocking.  I was receiving chemo the week before Christmas and thought,  how special this person must be to make stockings.  I was so touched by it, that my husband took a picture of me with the stocking while receiving chemo and texted it to everyone in the family.  What a  thoughtful idea of you.  I will always remember it.  Just wanted to say, “thank you”. "

If you would like to help us achieve our goal in bringing a smile to more faces this year, please consider providing a donation of time, talent and/or money.

Our stockings go to patients at the University of Michigan's (U-M) Canton Infusion Center, U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center Infusion areas, the Ann Arbor VA and to our Oncology inpatient units in UMHS.

If you would like to be involved with our project, please contact Susan Blaisdell at: sblaisde@umich.edu