NORFOLK, Va. - The Hogfarmers Foundation makes it their mission to help children and families battling pediatric cancer.
One of those kids was Ethan, who was diagnosed with lymphoma at 12 years old. Unfortunately, he passed away less than a year later, but not without inspiring others to help kids like him.
"Ethan wanted every kid that’s facing hard times to have a CaringBand," The Hogfarmers' Joe Hall said. "It was one of his dreams."
The Hogfarmers are helping to bring Ethan's dream to life, donating CaringBands to children battling cancer. The CaringBand bracelet and app helps people send encouragement, support and love to those who need it.
"The kid will feel the caring band shake or light light up," Hall said. "They’ll get excited, somebody out there is thinking about me."
"When it lights up it really lights up," The HogFarmers' Corey Johnson said. "It shakes and it moves and it blinks. The kids love it."
The kids don't just love it, but need it, while they try to keep their spirits up in the midst of harsh cancer treatment.
"The treatment is almost as harsh as having cancer itself, so us being able to reach out to our followers on social media to say hey, such and such, this is their name on CaringBand, we need to send them some love, it’s gonna be really cool" Hall said. "I can’t wait until the families get them and they’re getting hundreds of messages of support whenever they need it. That's what I'm super excited about."
"A lot of these families, they’re in the hospital for months on end," Johnson said. "Just to reach out to them, they’re just so glad somebody’s thinking of them."
Within the first week of announcing CaringBand donations, the HogFarmers were able to order enough for 40 children.
You can help them get caring bands to even more kids through hogfarmerscharity.org, while also helping to keep Ethan's dream alive.
