Crocheting may be considered a dying art but not in the Tandon household in Vestavia Hills. Shreya Tandon, who is a rising eighth grader at the Alabama School of Fine Arts and finished seventh grade at Liberty Park Middle School recently came up with the idea of using her crocheting skills, learned from her grandmother, to raise a substantial amount of money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“Crocheting is very relaxing for me and it’s a win-win situation to raise money for St. Jude at the same time because they support a great cause,” Tandon said.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, founded in 1962, is a pediatric treatment and research facility located in Memphis focused on children's catastrophic diseases, particularly leukemia and other cancers. The hospital costs about $2.8 million a day to run, but patients are not charged for their care.
Tandon wanted to utilize her summer for gaining a meaningful volunteer experience but could not get many opportunities due to a minimum age requirement at most places she wanted to work. She decided to take matters in her own hands and started a campaign on Facebook with help from her parents. The response has been overwhelming. She started with a modest goal of raising $200 and raised more than $300 within an hour of posting. The amount now stands at $860 and she had to pause the fundraising because she received more than 20 orders of crocheted soft toys, which will take up to the end of summer for her to complete. She plans to open this campaign again for her Christmas break.
Here are the links for Shreya’s fundraising:
http://events.stjude.org/shreyatandon
-- Submitted by Ritesh Tandon
