Pillowcase donations aim to comfort children with cancer

Cancer steals a lot of choices from children.

They can't choose to play with friends rather than endure treatments. When chemotherapy makes their hair fall out, they can't choose their style, let alone select pretty clips, ribbons or headbands.

And they certainly don't choose the color of the four walls of their hospital rooms or the tranquil watercolor reproduction hanging opposite the bed.

But a movement afoot at this weekend's DuPage County Fair will give children with cancer a choice, a bit of control over their environment, a smidgen of self-expression.

The volunteer group ConKerr Cancer will collect colorful, handmade pillowcases popping with personality to give to children undergoing cancer treatments at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield.

Dora Castro-Ahillen, the hospital's child life therapy coordinator, said she was thrilled when she heard the news.

"It brings a splash of color to very neutral rooms," she said. "Hospital rooms are not necessarily very colorful. But these immediately speak to it being a children's room. The kids get excited because the prints are beautiful."

The fair will collect pillowcases at all ticket windows through Friday. Those interested in donating are asked to make the pillowcases from cheery cotton fabric and bring them to the fair in a Ziploc bag. In return, the fair patron will receive one free admission with a paid adult admission. For information and a link to sewing instructions, visit dupagecountyfair.org.

ConKerr Cancer, a Pennsylvania-based charity, launched the One Million Pillowcase Challenge and already has donated more than 200,000 pillowcases to sick children across the country.

Fair committee member Diane Weber found the project when she was surfing her favorite quilting websites.

"I thought it would be an interesting and neat idea and a way for the community to give back," Weber said.

More than a week before the fair's opening day, Weber already had received 40 pillowcases.

"They have a pretty tough time ahead of them," said Weber, whose mother-in-law died of cancer a few years ago. "It's a fun thing for them, a thing they can keep at the hospital and maybe this can remind them of home."

The pillowcases are taken to the kids' rooms where they are given a choice of which they want to keep. This rare choice sometimes helps comfort them, said Castro-Ahillen, who saw the pillowcases' effect on the children while she worked at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

"You have kids who have to endure a lot of uncomfortable procedures because that's the nature of the treatment," she said. "Even the most simple and mundane thing of being able to choose a pillowcase, it's more reflective of their interest and it's a conversation starter."

And on top of that, she said they can be touching reminders to the children that they are not alone.

"There is a high level of stress connected to their ordeals," she said. "They are going through tough times and the pillow may be something that will have bright colors. It's a neat reminder that other people care about you in the community who might not personally know you."