All Good Gifts

What’s the best gift you’ve ever received? Did it come without ribbons? Come without tags? Come without packages, boxes or bags?

These are precisely the kind of gifts that come from The Blesie Tree, our perpetual giving tree that supports patients with cancer. It’s modeled after the Jesse tree in Isaiah 11:1, an Advent tree that bears much fruit.

Our tree bears fruit by paying kindness forward. The Blesie Tree Foundation helps cancer patients with everyday needs, such as groceries, gas, utility bills and other obligations. We’re also able to provide gifts to fit the unique needs of patients and their families.

Gifts for Cancer Patients

Since the beginning of The Blesie Tree three years ago, it has benefited over 200 families in the area. Here are a few of the special ways we’ve been able to touch the lives of others this year:

• Provided a young mother with a Shutterfly gift certificate so she could create a photo album for her son to remember her

• Assisted a family in taking a vacation together

• Underwrote the cost of massage gift certificates for a number of patients

• Bought Buff head coverings for a male patient who’d experienced hair loss from treatment

• Gifted a patient with an Isabel Bloom “Hugs” figurine

• Sent flowers to a patient who’d had a fall

Paying Kindness Forward

At Thanksgiving, The Blesie Tree collaborated with Hy-Vee in providing eight patients with complete Thanksgiving meals. Each recipient received a dinner that was ready to serve eight people, resulting in a total of 64 meals. We received word that one of the recipients paid it forward by picking up the tab for another customer’s Thanksgiving dinner – doubling the gift and doubling the blessing!

The Blesie Tree Foundation is funded through generous contributions and our annual Blesie Tree Walk. Want to help keep the giving going? Visit our Blesie Tree web page to learn more.