ESCANABA, Mich. (AP) — A nine-year-old Holy Name School student is helping cancer patients in Delta County one scarf at a time. Mary Scheuren sells her handmade crocheted scarves and gives the proceeds to the Delta County Cancer Alliance in an effort to help those battling cancer.
Scheuren learned to crochet when she was six, and after attending a Relay for Life event, decided she would use her talent to help others.
Scheuren's mother, Charlotte Oshe, explained she and Mary were walking at Relay for Life in honor of her great-grandmother, who had cancer and Mary was inspired. Oshe said scarves have been shipped as far as Missouri.
"We've gotten a lot of love and help," she said.
Cheri Severinsen, president of the Delta County Cancer Alliance, said seeing someone so young doing something for a worthy cause is heartwarming.
"It's wonderful. She's using her talent for something good," she said.
Severinsen noted that each time she purchases one of Scheuren's scarves to send to cancer patients, she makes sure they know it came from a young student, and added that people are touched by it.
"They're always excited to see it comes from a young person," said Severinsen.
So far, Scheuren has raised $150 for the Delta County Cancer Alliance and has made more than 60 scarves, the Daily Press reported.
In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month during October, 50 percent of the proceeds from scarves sold on Scheuren's Facebook page "Mary's Fairy Scarves" will go to Delta County Cancer Alliance. Scarves are also sold at Positively! The Center for Success in Escanaba, where for every scarf sold, a $1 is donated to the Cancer Alliance.
According to Scheuren, her favorite part of creating the scarves is knowing she's helping out the community.
"There are so many people with cancer and you want to help them get better," she said, noting her family has been impacted by cancer and being able to give back is rewarding.
Oshe said she couldn't be more proud of her daughter and the cause she is fighting.
"I'm very proud of the person she's growing into," she said.
This is Mary's post on Facebook about herself:
Hello, My name is Mary Scheuren.
I am going into 4th grade at Holy Name School. I love my school.
I belong to Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church. I love studying about God and practicing religion. I also really love Math and science. I want to be a chemistry teacher when I grow up. My favorite thing to do is go discovering outside. I like to explore and camp and hike. I also like to craft and create things. I have been told I have an awesome imagination.
For as long as I can remember I watched my mom make stuff with yarn. She has made me hats and blankets and sweaters. I love wearing and using the stuff my mom makes for me and I wanted to learn how to make stuff too. So my mom started to teach me how to crochet. It was tricky at first.
I was 5 years old when I started crocheting chains. I made big long chains that I would use for rope and to tie up presents. Actually I didn’t just tie up presents with the crocheted chains, I tied up everything, including once I tied up my little brother. I got in trouble for that because even if you want to you shouldn’t tie up your little brother.
When I was 6 years old I asked my mom if I could have an Ipod. She told me that ipods were expensive and a big responsibility… that I had to be responsible in using an ipod and responsible in taking care of it. My mom told me if I could earn half the money to buy an ipod that she would pitch in the other half. She said that earning my ipod would help teach me its worth.
Sooooo…. I started to think, “How can I earn $100?” I got paid for doing chores around the house, but most of the chores I did paid a quarter. I would have to sweep the kitchen 400 times to earn enough money for an ipod… that wasn’t going to work. So I sat and I thought and I figured that I could start a scarf business. I asked my mom if she would help me. She said yes and she gave me some “SEED MONEY”. Seed money is money people invest in your business to help it get started and then you pay them the money back once you start making a profit.
I took my seed money and I bought yarn, lots and lots of yarn. Most of it cost $6 a skein. I sat down with my mom and decided how much I should charge for my scarves. We decided $10 was a good price because it paid me $4 to make the scarf and I could put my profit towards buying my ipod.
I named my scarves, “MARY’s FAIRY SCARVES” because my name is Mary and I love Fairies and I think Fairies would find my scarves fashionable. My mom took pictures of me making my scarves and asked her friends on facebook if they wanted to buy scarves. She was pretty surprised when the orders came streaming in! My scarves were popular! People thought they were pretty and wanted to wear them and that made me HAPPY!!!!
Then Ms. Peggy of Positively the Center for Success invited me to come sell my scarves out of her store at a Ladies’ Night Out Event! I was very excited to have my scarves sold in a real store. Peggy is a very nice lady… she knows all about business.. and I made a lot of profit that night!
With my mom helping me sell scarves on Facebook and Ms. Peggy letting me sell scarves out of her store I raised enough money to pay back all the seed money my mom loaned me AND to buy my whole ipod all by myself. I felt very proud and my mom was very proud!
After I had reached my ipod goal I decided to use my scarves to help others. I donated scarves to local fund raisers and raffles. I sent scarves to people to cheer them up, and my favorite scarf thing was:
Last year right before Christmas a person at our church got very sick and had to be in the hospital a long time; he couldn’t work or pay his bills. I got busy and decided to start a scarf fund raiser! Again with the help of my mom and Facebook I sold enough scarves to raise over $450 for the family in need! They were so happy! They said that money helped make a house payment! And all because I had fun making scarves!
I like to make stuff, and I like to help people out. Making scarves has been a great thing for me. I hope to keep making scarves and learning to do new things. Right now my new fun thing is learning to spin just like Rumplestiltskin, My mom is helping me to learn to spin wool into yarn on a drop spindle. I like spinning and I hope someday I can have a sheep so I can harvest my own wool… but my mom says, “ NO SHEEP!” not even if I raise half the money to buy one.
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Information from: Daily Press, http://www.dailypress.net http://bit.ly/2dQQ2PE
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