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 informaton:
If you are not familiar with polymer clay and want to learn more, visit the Bottles of Hope, The Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild, Gilda's Club of Texas.