University of Tennessee Athletics
Vols Help Bring Beads Of Courage To ETCH
January 28, 2015 | Football
Jan. 28, 2015
By Brian Rice
UTSports.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
-- For each of the last two seasons, Tennessee football players have participated in the Beads of Courage program, allowing UT athletes to have an impact on kids going through the toughest battles of their lives.With the launch of the program at East Tennessee Children's Hospital on Wednesday, now that impact can take on a very local flavor.
Members of Team 119, the UT cheerleaders and Smokey met with patients and families at ETCH on Wednesday as part of the launch party for the East Tennessee chapter of the program.
"We're so grateful for UT football and the athletes that have participated in our `Carry a Bead' program where they make a very intentional act to carry a bead in a game in honor of a Beads of Courage member," said Jean Baruch, Executive Director and Founder of Beads of Courage. "Now they get to hand-deliver beads that they carried in a game back in November. The families are so encouraged that they're here."
Baruch began the Beads of Courage Program at Phoenix Children's Hospital in February 2003. Young patients facing cancer and other live-threatening illnesses receive a strand that they add a bead to every time they have a specific treatment or have an overnight hospital stay.
"It gives you something to think about, to reflect on what you're doing," linebacker Jakob Johnson said. "These kids, they're so young and have to go through all of this. It reminds you that everything you have can be taken away from you at any point. It's good that you can make someone so happy with something as small as a bead. Making a kid smile, that's what it's all about."
Players carried "Acts of Courage" beads on their pads for the Missouri game in November. The beads, orange with a white Power T are given to kids after a particularly tough treatment or when they need an extra boost of encouragement.
Tennessee players also wore the beads against Georgia in 2013, but without a local program, they were distributed all over the country. Thanks to the interest generated by UT's participation, Jewelry Television, a Knoxville-based TV network and national sponsor of the program, partnered with ETCH to launch the program in Knoxville to benefit kids receiving both inpatient and outpatient care at the hospital.
"This is a cool moment for us," said Antone Davis, Vol for Life coordinator. "We sent those beads all over the country, so it is really cool for us to be able to keep some of those beads in Knoxville."
And the beads can reach patients at ETCH, where the Volunteers have a standing date each week to visit with kids and families, whose eyes light up every time they wak through the door.
"This is one of the things we get our players out to do so they understand the impact that they have in the community," Davis said. "It's important for our players to not just come out and smile and sign autographs, but to understand who they're talking to and why and what it means to them. They didn't want to leave."
The players relish the opportunity to spend time with the kids.
"We are out here playing football, being able to do what we love," Johnson said. "These kids don't have that opportunity, so for us to come out here and just be around them, spend some time with them, make them laugh, it's a beautiful thing."
Our players visit Tamara as she goes in to receive her Beads of Courage pic.twitter.com/adekJDpwAI
-- Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) January 28, 2015
