2015 Kenna Cares Bags in the Process of Being Made, Donations Being Accepted

The memory of little girl from Houlton who passed away last year from a form of childhood cancer lives on through Kenna Cares Bags. The time has once again come to help fulfill Makenna Ward's dream of helping sick kids feel better. It's time for the 2015 Kenna Cares Bag Drive, and you can help!

The goal this year is to fill 100 bags to give to Pediatric Cancer Centers here in Maine to be handed out to new patients when they arrive for their first treatment. A bag that stands as a message for hope and joy for families that are going through the most terrifying day of their lives.

If you would like to help the crew behind Kenna Cares Bags reach their goal, you can do so by purchasing a bag for $25. They will then stuff the bags with all sorts of goodies.

This year's goal is 100 bags. Bags will stop being sold one the goal number is hit. You help is needed by way of making donations to stuff those bags.

Here's a little back story on how Kenna Cares Bags came to be from Amy Ward, Makenna's mother: "This first started off by a friend of ours trying to help older people out by making theses bags up and doing them in remembrance of someone. Last year my family lost our sweet Makenna to Cancer. Before Makenna passed away she had told me that she was wondering how she could help other kids out. Thought bout it and told her we would find a way. Well we were never able to complete that while Kenna was here with us, but do to these bags a friend asked if they could make these in honor of Makenna. Last year they had two days and they were able to sell 70 of these amazing thirty-one bags. We had gotten donations and were able to fill theses bags with all kinds of goodies. After we filled these we took these awesome bags to Bangor and Boston and was able to send these so that when kids go in to clinic for the fist time for chemo they would get one of these awesome bags. We got some feed back from a few families and the faces on the kids faces are priceless. These kids can be in clinic all day and in some cases they Re hospitalized for week doing there cancer treatments. These bags are so full of things that it keeps the kids excited and entertained. Trust me, as a parent. These are amazing. To see the smiles and laughter from these bags, they are music to your ears."

You can donate money or if you would rather buy or make stuff for the bags, any donations would be appreciated. They need things like blankets, crafts, nail polish, soft hats, bandaids, small little ice packs (soft ones).

These bags go from newborn to age 18 and these bags are for both girls and boys.

The group will be only selling the bags until this weekend, so you only have a few more days to help them reach their goal of 100 bags. As it stand right now, they have only sold about 50 bags.

From Amy Ward, " Could you please help us to make Makenna's dream come true? Purchase a bag for a very well deserved child. What these kids go through, they deserve the world and the least we can do is show them and their families that they are not alone in this and that they are loved! Thank you so much. The Wards: Kirk, Amy, Felicity, Blake and Makenna."

If you live in Houlton, there are contact people at Houlton Elementary School and Houlton Southside School who are collecting orders. See Mandy, Charity, Leanne, or Becky.

If you don't live in Houlton but would still like to donate, you can do so through Paypal.

You can also submit a $25 payment to: amberbrown1978@gmail.com. An email will be sent to you in confirmation of your order.

You can also check out the Kenna Cares Facebook Page for more information.

Please help out in any way you can and keep Makenna's dream alive!