If you need another reusable shopping bag for the summer, why not try one that is not only good for the environment but benefits sick kids as well?
HomeGoods – that store where you find all kinds of things you didn’t know you couldn’t live without – is selling two limited-edition, reusable bags this month, one of which was designed by an ill child from Portland. More than 465 of the stores are participating in the company’s 18th annual “Help Families Fight Cancer” campaign. Customers can donate at the register, or buy a shopping bag for 99 cents. Fifty cents from every bag purchased will go to the Jimmy Fund, which helps defray the cost of cancer care and fund research at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Care Institute.
One of the bags was designed by 8-year-old Sarah Aeedy, who lives in Portland. Her drawing of a colorful house with a flower garden and a few clouds overhead was chosen to be on the HomeGoods bag because of its bright colors and beautiful design, according to the hospital. Aeedy moved to the United States from Iraq in 2017 to get treatment at Dana-Farber’s Jimmy Fund Clinic for thalassemia, a rare blood disorder in which the body makes abnormal hemoglobin, resulting in the destruction of red blood cells. Aeedy had a bone marrow transplant to treat her thalassemia, and has been in medical isolation all year. Her doctor told her she could not return home to Portland because it wouldn’t be safe for her. She drew a picture of a home that was safe, a place she would love to live. Sarah says that picture – the one on the bag – is her dream house.
Aeedy has been studying with a tutor, but will return to Harrison Lyseth Elementary School in the fall, where her favorite subject is gym. She enjoys watching movies, and is a big Star Wars fan. She also likes to paint, draw pictures and play video games on Playstation.
The second bag, covered in hearts of different sizes and styles, was designed by Sarah Podradchik, 13, who lives in Melrose, Massachusetts. Podradchik is being treated for a germinoma, a rare brain tumor.
The bags are for sale at HomeGoods stores through June 27. There are two stores in Maine – one at 700 Gallery Blvd. in Scarborough, and one at 235 Camden St. in Rockland.
— MEREDITH GOAD
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