Written by Fleur and Blythe’s mom…

Fleur and Blythe love to make crafts with Perler Beads! If you aren't familiar with Perler Beads, they are tiny beads that you make designs with, cover with wax paper, iron, and fuse together.

Our little Wish Flower project began with the simple use of perler beads. Several months ago, on a lazy Saturday afternoon, all three children were busy at their craft table making bead designs. After a while, they began bringing me tray after tray of tiny flower designs to iron. The mini flowers were in every color you could imagine, and really adorable

The making of the flowers went on for several days....if it was quiet in the playroom I knew they were busy making bead flowers. Soon there was a ziploc bag full of over 40 mini flowers. My middle daughter, Fleur, was intent on getting to 100! My oldest daughter, Blythe, came into the kitchen with yet another tray full, ready to be ironed. We began to talk about what could be done with all the flowers and she instantly suggested selling the flowers to support the Children's Wish Foundation. Blythe and I had been talking a lot about the Children's Wish Foundation and other organizations like it. We make a monthly donation to the Wish Foundation and Blythe had become excited about giving to them after a fellow student donated his birthday money to the organization. I suggested calling their little flower creations "Wish Flowers," and our project was born.

We were waiting for just the right opportunity to sell the wish flowers, so the kids just kept making them.  When I returned from Italy, a member of the school student council approached me about borrowing a BBQ for a fundraiser they were organizing. When I found out the event was a Car Wash/BBQ (Car-B-Que) to support the Wish Foundation I asked if we could arrange to sell the little wish flowers at the car wash! It was perfect.

The kids topped up their supply in the days before the event, made a poster sign, and discussed how much to sell the flowers for. When I first mentioned the wish flower idea to my sister in Calgary, she suggested that we punch a hole in the center of each flower and using ribbon, tie the flower around the buyer's wrist. This way, they could make a wish for a sick child and eventually, when the ribbon fell off, they could hope that their wish would come true. The kids loved this idea.

We set up our table at the front of the car wash entrance and I helped the kids rehearse what they might want to say to potential buyers. The flowers became popular pretty quick!”

Thank you to the O’Connor family for their thoughtful and creative idea!