Ellie s Hats VA DECA Community Service Campaign 2014-2015
2014-2015 What is Ellie s Hats? Introduction The Virginia DECA State Action Team is very excited to announce our partnership with Ellie s Hats in order to spread awareness of childhood cancer throughout our great Commonwealth. As Virginia s State Action Team we have decided to partner with Ellie s Hats as this year s focus on our state-wide community service project. We feel very passionate about this cause, and we hope to continue this partnership for years to come. Background Ellie s Hats was started in January 2014 by Jay Coakley, a physical education teacher. Ellie started kindergarten as a brave, beautiful girl without hair. When Coakley saw how much she liked hats, he decided to add a few more hats to her collection for Christmas. After sharing his plan with friends, family, and neighbors they wanted to provide hats too. Soon he had gathered more hats than even Ellie could wear. Realizing that many children facing the trials of childhood cancer are treated in an INOVA Fairfax hospital, he launched a campaign to collect enough hats for all the children being treated for cancer at the hospital. Over 140 hats were delivered to an annual Christmas party, where they were handed out to all kids in attendance. Upon leaving the party, Ellie said to her mom, I think they like my hats. Benefits and Rewards The State Action Team is excited to release chapter opportunities later in August. Chapters choosing to participate will receive more information on recognition, rewards, and benefits through the Virginia DECA website and advisor updates.
2014-2015 How can you help? Chapter Ideas Here are some ideas to get your chapter started. Use these to create excitement within your chapter and school. Feel free to come up with unique ideas to give to an amazing cause and share them with the State Action Team for other chapters to use. Extra credit incentives (up to schools) Hat days/ Gold days (Gold is the color associated with childhood cancer) Collection boxes Christmas hat party School wide competitions Competition between classes Competition between chapters/ districts/ regions Announcements/ advertisements in schools Promotions at sports events. EX: Discounted ticket if there is a hat brought. Ellie's Hats mission is to donate hats to children with cancer. The hope is that by showing these brave children that others are thinking about them it will help bring a little cheer into their day. Ellie s Hats Mission Statement
2014-2015 Materials Donation Tag: To add a personal touch, we have Ellie s tags. We will give one copy of Ellie s tag to each chapter that a chapter and/or member will personally sign. Each chapter is responsible for attaching these tags to the hats that are given to the children with children with cancer. The tag will look something like this below. South Lakes DECA
2014-2015 Calendar of Events Here is a compiled list of ideas throughout the year for what chapters can use to get their members involved with Ellie s Hats. This is a suggested list of activities. To help track the state s progress we ask that participating chapters complete the monthly report for this project. Our goal is to have 100% chapter participation. Happy Collecting! September CHILDHOOD CANCER AWARENESS MONTH 16 th - #Funkyhat, Try and allow members and students wear their hats in support of childhood cancer awareness. 29 th - Last Monday of every month. Send in the monthly report located on the Virginia DECA website. October 1 st - State fair! Bring a hat and get a prize. Mention VA DECA on twitter with pictures in hats. 15 th - #CapThat - Cap it to cancer and share it with Virginia DECA 20th - Region 1 and 2 FLC. Wear a hat! 22 nd - Region 3 FLC. Wear a hat! 23 rd - Region 4 FLC. Wear a hat! 25 th - Region 5 FLC. Wear a hat! 27 th - Last Monday of the month. Send in your monthly report. November 12 th - #DECAwearsGold. Wear gold as a chapter and tag pictures to Virginia DECA on twitter. 24 th - Monthly report due! December 18 th - #winterhatsforellie: Use this hashtag and tag @virginiadeca @ellieshats 29 th - Monthly report due! Can turn in earlier in the month due to winter breaks. January 14 th - #BallCapsForEllie: Tag Virginia DECA in any pictures posted and gets retweeted. 26 th - Monthly report due! Send in your report on time! February 20 th - #ReadyForStates: Show us how you have prepared for states and are ready to show off your hats. 16 th - Monthly Report due!! Last one before states!!!!
Hospitals 25 INVOA Fairfax Hospital 3300 Gallows Road Falls Church, VA 22042 2014-2015 Children s Hospital Medical Center 6565 Arlington Boulevard, Suite 200 Falls Church, VA 22042 Children s Hospital of the King s Daughters 601 Children s Lane Norfolk, VA 23507 Georgetown University Hospital 3800 Reservoir Road, NW Washington, DC 20007 VCU Medical Center 1250 East Marshall Street Richmond, VA 23298 UVA Medical Center 1215 Lee Street Charlottesville, VA 22903 Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital 1906 Belleview Avenue SE Roanoke, VA 24014
Ellie s Hats is a nonprofit organization to donate hats to children with cancer and helps to spread awareness about childhood cancer. Ellie, a student in Jay s physical education class, started kindergarten as a brave, beautiful girl without hair. When Jay saw how much she liked wearing hats, he decided to add a few more hats to her collection as a Christmas present. After sharing his plan with friends, family, and neighbors, he found that they wanted to give hats to Ellie too. Soon more hats than even Ellie could wear had been donated. Realizing many children are facing the trials of childhood cancer he decided to collect enough hats for all of the children being treated at the hospital. The first hat drive produced 140 hats that were then delivered to an annual Christmas party, at Fairfax Hospital, and were handed out to all children in attendance. Since Ellie s Hats started in Jan. 2014 Hats have been donated to children in clinics and hospitals across the country. There have been hat drives at schools, churches, offices, birthday parties. Hats have been donated by individuals that make handmade hats. The NFL, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros, Washington Wizards and the Washington Redskins have sent hats. What is next? Another division of Ellie s Hats has been started, With the help of Fox Hole Technology, which is called Ellie s Brigade. Ellie s Brigade will have the same mission as Ellie s Hats and it will focus on supporting children that are being treated in military hospitals In August we will be a part of o The Pittsburgh Pirate Stand Up To Cancer Night o The Jackson Generals Ellie s Hats/Childhood Cancer Awareness night. o The Bowling Green Hotrods Ellie s Hats/Childhood Cancer Awareness night. Starting in September, Lake Braddock Secondary School, in Fairfax County, will have events to help bring awareness about childhood cancer with the help of Ellie s Hats. The SGA, DECA, Key Club, NHS, NJHS and the athletic department will all be involved Ellie s Father s comments about Ellie s Hats These hats mean something to her. And based on what I saw at a Christmas party at the hospital when donated hats were given to all the kids in attendance and what I ve heard from our clinic staff regarding the numerous hats distributed there, these hats mean something to many other kids as well. A quote from the mother of a child with cancer Since we started Ellie s Hats we have seen classes and schools hold hat drives, teenagers raise money, workplaces donate, kids request people bring hats instead of gifts to their birthday parties, and lots of other creative ideas! All of these initiatives bring joy, but also spread awareness about childhood cancer and for that we are so grateful.
Some feedback that we have received The patients and parents alike absolutely LOVE them! The kids LOVE the hats. The nurses think they are beautiful. Thank you for your cause, it is making a difference We received a special little box of hats in the mail today. Oh, were the kids excited! My boys love their new hats! I think Ellie s Hats is an amazing program. For more information you can visit the website www.ellieshats.org, on Facebook at Ellie s Hats contact me at jay@ellieshats.org
Ellie s Hats is also partnering with Lake Braddock Secondary School and here are ideas the team at Lake Braddock came up with. Here are some ideas to help promote childhood cancer awareness with the help of Ellie s Hats. September o With September being childhood cancer awareness month it would be nice to do a few simple things that would not require extra work by teachers that are always busy at this time. On Friday Sep. 12 th the students could be encouraged to wear something gold to school and to the football game. Ellie s Hats will be placing an ad in the football program. At the game the announcer could read the ad. Gold shoe laces could be sold during lunch for students to wear. An article could be written in the Bear Facts. I post could be put on the website to let people know how Lake Braddock and Ellie s Hats are working together to promote awareness. October o Plans can be made by organizations that would like to hold a hat drive in November to collect hats that can be donated before the holidays. o At the home football game on Oct 24 th we would have a short pre-game activity with Ellie s Hats and alumni. o Ellie s Hats will have a booth at the Bite of Braddock. November o The groups holding hat drives would collect hats. December o The hats that have been collected will be delivered to Fairfax Hospital and other local hospitals, depending on the number of hats that have been collected. January o Possible event at a basketball game. Other possible events: o A event in the spring with a blood drive, walk or other activities to help spread awareness
The Virginia DECA State Action Team encourages your chapter to participate in the Ellie s Hats Community Service Project planned for this year. State Action Team 70 is excited to implement a statewide service project. We cannot wait to work with every chapter in this endeavor! Provided in this packet was a contact sheet unique to each region. Please don t hesitate to contact one of the officers for any questions or problems that may arise! The Virginia DECA website will also have information about the project on it. The State Action Team envisioned this project to be focused on raising Childhood Cancer Awareness by using Ellie s Hats as the mean. We ask that each chapter keep this in mind when planning events and collecting hats: it s all about Childhood Cancer Awareness. Also, while we are going to implement a friendly competition with this project we want everyone to know that any contributions whatsoever are a great help to our overall project! We also plan to have this project continue throughout the year. So if one month doesn t work for your chapter there are going to be many opportunities to get involved. Once again State Action Team 70 is very excited for this project and this year. We are excited for our chapters and members as well! The Ellie s Hats Community Service Project is a great way to start Living La Vida DECA! Sincerely, Virginia DECA State Action Team 70 Virginia * Sean * Alex * Andrew C. * Isaac * Ivan * Andrew D. * Cameron * Meggie * Emily 2014-2015