Shine On! Marathon Challenge and Bead of Courage
“Connecting caring individuals with courageous kids through a random act of kindness”
This year, the Tyler Foundation is giving Shine On! Marathon Challenge runners who raise a minimum of 20,000 yen in pledges the opportunity to participate in a very special program to touch the life of a child with cancer in Japan.
The Tyler Foundation has recently launched the US-founded Beads of Courage program in Japan. Children fighting cancer receive colorful beads as meaningful symbols of courage to commemorate milestones they have achieved along their unique treatment path. Each bead tells a story of strength, honor and hope.
This program has been shown to:
- decrease illness-related distress
- increase the use of positive coping strategies
- help children find meaning in illness
- restore sense of self in children coping with serious illness
- provide something tangible the child can use to tell about their experience during cancer treatment and after
Please click here to see more about Beads of Courage.
In addition to a variety of standard beads children receive on a regular basis to track their cancer treatment, when a child is going through a particularly challenging time, they are given a very special bead to enCOURAGE them. This is where Team BOC comes into play and where you personally can make a difference.
Here is how it works:
First: If you would like to participate, you must have a minimum of 20,000 yen in pledges indicated on the Tyler Foundation website. When you reach 20,000 yen in pledges we will email you asking if you would like to participate.
Second: We will send you 2 beads and a card in a stamped, pre-addressed envelope. Choose one of the beads to keep. This is a gift from the Tyler Foundation and Beads of Courage that will be a symbol of a child you have supported as a member of Team Beads of Courage.
The remaining bead is the Team Bead and you will carry this during your run in the Tokyo Marathon. Visualize your positive thoughts, hope, and energy as being absorbed by this bead as you run - so that the bead in turn will bring a BOOST of enCOURAGEment to a child coping with cancer treatment.
Third: Upon completion of the Tokyo Marathon please write a few words of encouragement inside the card provided. Place the card and bead for the child in the stamped, pre-addressed envelope pop it in the mail.
Fourth: Once the Tyler Foundation receives your matched bead it will be given to one of the many children participating in the Beads of Courage program in Japan when they especially need an extra dose of love and encouragement!
Questions? Contact: Kimberly Forsythe, President
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