How might we support teens with cancer?
After learning that teens are the most underserved age demographic of people facing cancer, Team One Stone worked to develop a campaign to raise awareness and create opportunities for people to support them. To understand the challenges these teens face, we connected with Mountain States Tumor Institute and St. Luke’s Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Clinic, as well as teens who had experience with cancer.
With greater understanding, we designed a campaign that raised awareness, and raised funds, to support wig making for cancer patients who had lost their hair while in treatment. We teamed up with local salons that offered free haircuts to people who donated at least 8 inches of their hair. We culminated our project with a celebration at the Boise Centre on the Grove that featured local bands, teens living with cancer, and a public art canvas filled with drawings, thoughts, and wishes. The celebration also included Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney and his Command staff who accepted the challenge to publicly shave their heads in the aptly named “Pigs for Wigs” event to raise money for the cause.
CUT.
GIVE.
REPEAT.
OUTCOME:
We collected over 40 ponytails of donated hair and raised nearly $6,000. Some of the funds were used to purchase three Apple iPads for the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Clinic of St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital and Mountain States Tumor Institute in Boise for use by cancer teens while receiving treatments.
