Brody’s Elves

The “Brody’s Elves” program began Christmas of 2011, our first Christmas without Brody. We were struggling with his absence–particularly hard to take during the holidays. As a way to honor Brody we decided to adopt Doernbecher families from the pediatric oncology unit where Brody was treated; families who’s lives have been turned upside down by the words, “your child has cancer, your child has an immune deficiency, or, your child needs a life saving bone marrow transplant”. Toys and games do not make these diagnoses disappear but if it brings a little holiday cheer, and lightens the burden, then it’s something worth doing. What we love about this program is how we connect with these families in a way that reminds them we understand they’re enduring something unthinkable, and we are here to ease the burden of the holidays while their child fights for his or her little life against the harsh realities of a life threatening diagnosis.

In 2021, it was time to try something different. In years past, we would have our patient families fill out wish lists and then we would shop, wrap and deliver a complete Christmas. Toys, clothes, shoes, gift cards for gas and groceries, it was a massive undertaking but incredibly rewarding knowing so much love and holiday cheer was being spread in Brody’s memory. After 10 years of doing this, we decided to shake things up a bit and help as many families as we could who are struggling financially during the holidays under the weight and stress of complex medical diagnoses. With guidance from our partners at Doernbecher, we felt the best way to reach as many children as possible was to focus our holiday fundraising efforts on gift cards. As it turns out, this idea has been very successful. Instead of helping only 3 or 4 families, we are able to help countless families thanks in no small part to the generosity of our Brody’s Elves participants! The dedicated team of social workers at Doernbecher identify patients with the greatest need and assist in delivering the gift cards directly to them.  

It’s also important to highlight that children who are diagnosed too close to the holidays typically won’t have access to assistance because all available resources have already been allocated to other families in need. For families that fall into this category, the Brody’s Elves gift card program will allow them to shop for their children, use the cards as gifts for their children, buy groceries and so forth.

This year, we need your help more than ever!  Our partners at Doernbecher have experienced a decrease in the types of holiday support they typically have access to through their partner organizations. To put it mildly, in the past year, support for families has gone from bad to worse. Doernbecher’s major partners in holiday giving are The Children’s Cancer Association (CCA) and Candlelighters. CCA completely cut their holiday support early in the pandemic and Candlelighters is not only restricting their holiday giving significantly for the first time ever, but they’ve cut gift cards from the types of financial resources they can provide to patients/families. Because of this, the Brody’s Elves gift card program has become the primary program supporting these kids and their families in this way. 

I know you have many options for supporting and donating to those in need, but please consider these children when you choose how to spread holiday goodness to local children in need. To do so, simply follow the link below to select the gift cards you’d like to purchase or click the donate button if you’d prefer to make a 100% tax deductible donation and leave the purchasing to us! You may also join the Brody’s Elves mailing list to receive our email updates. – Happy Holidays from Brody’s Elves