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Bottles of Hope
Clay Artists’ Outreach to Cancer Patients
Bottles of Hope is a grass roots program started by Diane Gregoire when she was going through Chemo during cancer treatments. She noticed the bottles being thrown away and asked for some to play with. She came back with them covered in clay and everyone at the treatment center loved them. This was the beginning of the BoH tradition in our Polymer Clay Guilds.
Bottles of Hope are created in any shape, color, or design. All tops come off so a word of encouragement, poem or prayer can be placed inside the bottle.
The NTPCG has chosen Bottles of Hope as our community service project. We currently produce Bottles of Hope for Gilda’s Club, an organization that provides services to many area individuals and families affected by cancer.
The Bottles of Hope chairperson collects the empty bottles and distributes to guild members at our monthly meetings. Members bring in the finished bottles for collection and distribution to Gilda’s Club. Of course, our generous members actively participate in individual community services related to polymer clay as well.
There are two main events at Gilda’s Club that NTPCG participates in:Survivor’s Celebration:
A wonderful uplifting event where the participants celebrate survival after cancer. Survival is defined as any time after diagnosis. It is joyful and fun. There is quite a following at Gilda’s Club now with many bottle collectors who have been to all these events. They provide us a very warm welcome and we have many friends looking forward to seeing us. Families attend and this event is growing each year. We usually anticipate the need for 100 bottles for this event.
Remembrance Ceremony:
This is a more solemn event has about 50 attendees. There is celebration of those who are gone and a reading of all names is done. There is a chorus that sings some beautiful songs. It is emotional and very sweet. The NTPCG tries to provide at least 50-75 bottles for this event.
For more information:
If you are not familiar with polymer clay and want to learn more, Visit the Bottles of Hope Website, The Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild, or Gilda's Club North Texas.