We help in more ways than one.

Maggie's Wigs 4 Kids

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month. The Upper Peninsula Lions started a campaign to register salons in the Upper Peninsula as Maggie's Wigs 4 Kids of Michigan salons. We are encouraging all hairstylists and salons in the UP to register. The "Hair Raiser" kicked off in September and is ongoing.

Please visit Maggie's Wigs 4 Kids of Michigan for specifics about salon registration and hair donation.

As Magie Varney (founder and CEO of Maggie's Wigs 4 Kids of Michigan) says, "It's not just about the hair. It's about the self-esteem. You can never have enough hair."

Kids Kicking Cancer

Lions across the UP are partnering with Kids Kicking Cancer to bring daily online classes to children across the UP. Kids Kicking Cancer offers virtual classes that explore breath, meditation, and traditional martial arts as tools to empower children who face serious illness.

Kids Kicking Cancer was created in Michigan in 1999 by Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg, a black belt rabbi and clinical assistant professor of pediatrics. He lost his first child to leukemia at the age of two and brings a wealth of personal experience and sensitivity to dealing with children and families facing life-threatening illness. This program now teaches over 7,000 children in 90 hospitals and program locations in seven countries.

Kids Kicking Cancer also has a black-belt program for patients who are not responding to treatments. This end-of-life care program provides ongoing meditation and family focus in a palliative format that culminates in the child receiving a black-belt, usually a few days before he or she dies. Embroidered on the black-belt are the words “Master Teacher” because that child is truly teaching the world how to use the power of light to break through darkness.

One of the alumni of the first Kids Kicking Cancer programs is Michael Hunt (shown above), who now is a martial arts therapist with the program. A 20+ year pediatric cancer survivor, he holds a 2nd-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Michael has worked with Kids Kicking Cancer since 2005, teaching classes and working with hospitalized children. Sensei Michael says that one of the most helpful aspects of the program is its focus on empowerment. In the program, each child becomes a teacher to others. When asked what is your purpose? the children yell out, “To teach the world.”

Naami Kosofsky is Kids Kicking Cancer’s Social Worker. She coordinates free family support services, guiding parents to financial and social resources outside the program. She also develops additional programming, including social activities for families. Kosofky says the pandemic has changed how Kids Kicking Cancer provides services, making the outreach into the UP easier. Before the pandemic, classes were live and locations varied each day. Now, online classes are available each day wherever a child and his siblings are. Children in the program can attend as many days, for as long as they wish—even after the cancer treatments have stopped.

Children who participate also receive a uniform and a backpack with surprise gifts. UP Lions are reimbursing Kids Kicking Cancer for the cost of uniforms and backpacks, through a generous grant from the Graymont Community and Economic Development Fund and local fundraising efforts throughout the UP.

Camp Quality

The partnership with Camp Quality and Bay Cliff Health Camp continues and we have rescheduled a camp for kids with cancer for September of 2021. It will be the first of its kind in the Upper Peninsula.

From Camp Quality's website:
Camp Quality was named based on the words of a pediatric oncologist: “No one can do anything about the quantity of one’s life, but all of us can do something about the quality.” It was founded in 1983 in Sydney, Australia, by Vera Entwistle, who was also responsible for introducing Camp Quality to several additional countries, including the United States.

The first U.S. camp was held in the summer of 1986 in Northwest Missouri for 43 campers. Today, that location typically hosts 100 campers, and 16 additional camp locations offer this unique experience to hundreds more.

Each location hosts a week-long residential camp for children in the summer and a reunion in the fall. Year-round activities include family weekends, holiday parties, day trips, winter weekends, and many other events that provide for fun and friendship.