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 Last year my high school pastor’s wife, Emmalie Miori, introduced me to an organization that she worked for that is dedicated to helping kids with cancer called Sunshine Kids. This organization helps kids, ages babies to 18, with cancer by providing them with exciting, positive group activities, so that they can do what kids are supposed to do...have fun and celebrate life. Some of these activities include going to pro football and baseball games, concerts, having holiday parties and going on trips to places like Orlando, New York City and New Orleans. All of these activities are free of charge for kids who are receiving cancer treatments in hospitals all around the United States. I learned that the Sunshine Kids National office was located right here in Houston and that they have been dedicated to bringing smiles to kids faces for over 20 years. Many people recognize Sunshine Kids supporters, like Craig Biggio, because they wear the Sunshine Kids button. It symbolizes bright hope for the future.
 In order to help these kids to have these life changing experiences, they need to raise money. I had read about a way that other schools had raised money for charities and I thought we could do that at Northland too. At Chapel, I told the students about Sunshine Kids and about how we could be a part of helping the kids. I asked everyone in chapel to raise their hand if they knew someone that had been diagnosed with cancer. As we looked around the room, almost every hand was raised. I asked the students, parents and faculty to wear the sunshine kids button and Northland spirit ribbon to school on homecoming Friday and to the game that night. The idea of the yellow sunshine kids button was to donate the amount of money we would spend on a homecoming mum or garter and to wear the button to school and to the homecoming game instead. As another option, buttons could be purchased with a minimum donation of $5 and added to mums and garters. We could change a child’s life just by sacrificing something that would only last one day and instead of having a mum or garter just sitting in our room , we would invest in the life of a child!
The “Share Some Sunshine” campaign was kicked off on Friday, September 11 at Chapel. It was a chapel that many students and faculty say they will never forget! Rita Suchma, the Director of Development for the Sunshine Kids Foundation, spoke with us and shared a video that showed us what fun kids have when they do things with Sunshine Kids. Then Paola Hasbun and Julia Wagner, two Sunshine Kids teens, shared with us about how their lives have been changed since they were diagnosed with cancer in high school. They also shared about how so many kids suffer from pain, depression and isolation when they are in cancer treatment and how Sunshine Kids gives them something to look forward to and people they can relate to. I think I can say for everyone that they are two of the bravest young women I know and their positive outlook on life is inspiring! It was an amazing chapel and everyone wanted to meet them afterwards and so many people were excited about raising the money!
We started collecting money right away! People donated the money they would spend on their garter or mum and people donated money and added the button to their mum or garter too. The amazing thing was that we had participation from the elementary, middle school and high school and so many people wanted to donate more than the minimum of $5. We collected money at the volleyball games, at lunch, at the school store and at the elementary pep rally. On Homecoming Friday, it was amazing to see so many students, faculty and parents wearing their Sunshine Kids buttons!
 We presented a check to the Sunshine Kids representative, Emmalie Miori, at the homecoming game. The check was for $2000.09 and what is even more exciting is that we continued to collect money during and after the game. Last week, we presented a check to G.W. Bailey, the Executive Director of Sunshine Kids, a check for $2255.45. He and all of the representatives for Sunshine Kids were amazed that we had raised so much money
I want to thank all of the students, faculty and families of Northland for supporting the Share the Sunshine campaign. Thank you also to all of the members of the Christian Council! We all came together to make a difference in the lives of children going through the toughest and most challenging time of their young lives.
We are looking forward to hosting a group of Sunshine Kids at our musical, Wizard of Oz! We are also excited that everyone is already talking about what we can do to raise even more next year! That is something to smile about!
You can find out more about Sunshine Kids at www.sunsinekids.org.
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