It's a Beads of Courage (BOC) weekend, here in Atlanta, Georgia.  Our Southern Flames glass chapter is having a beadathon at Beads by Design in Marietta.  Locally, two hospitals have over 600 patients in the BOC program who are children with cancer or a life threatening illness.  Geesh, that's way too many sick kids!

Carl Edwards, NASCAR race car driver and all around cool guy has become a hero to a lot of people in the program. Back in October, Carl visited the Aflac Cancer Center in Atlanta.  He met 5-year-old BOC patient, Dalton Kammer who gave Edwards his bead necklace to wear in his upcoming NASCAR race.  The necklace consisted of Dalton's name as well as special beads that he received for specific medical procedures.  It shows his medical journey through cancer treatment.  Edwards won that race and continued to wear it through the end of the season.  He won his last race and placed second overall for the season.  Each time, he pulled out the necklace from his fire suit and mentioned the Beads of Courage program and Dalton.  How can you not love this guy?

So hats off to the Beads of Courage Program, (donations happily accepted), the volunteers who donate beads and time, the young patients, their families and the wonderful medical providers who administer the program and treat the kids.

If you are a beadmaker and would like some tutorials for a few of the needed beads, visit our Southern Flames pages here.

And if you're in the Atlanta area, stop by and visit us this weekend, as we make beads for our program.  Directions are here.