Little Heroes Making A Big Difference

Siblings team up to raise money for their little sister's intensive therapy

Siblings, Left to Right - "Blaze" "F" and "Zed" have started a greeting card business to raise money for little sister (stroller) Bailey's intensive therapy

When Bailey’s siblings learned she was sick, they came up with a plan to help. Together, they founded Heroes of Hope, a greeting card business run out of their Toronto home, to raise money for their sister’s expensive therapy. Today, they have raised over $2000.

“We made the title “Heroes of Hope” because our little sister’s middle name is Hope”
-“F”, 6 years old

Bailey, four years old, has a rare form of infantile spasms. It is a life-limiting neurological disorder.

The siblings are aware of the dangers of the internet, so they prefer to go by their online pseudonyms. “Zed” is ten years old and she is the CEO. “Blaze” is 12 and he is the artistic director. “F” is six years old, and she isn’t sure what her title is, but she says she is “in charge of portraits.”

Bailey was 6 months old when she suddenly became very ill. She was diagnosed with infantile spasms, then a rare and life-limiting neurological disorder. That’s when her siblings got to work.

At first, they wanted to start a lemonade stand, but COVID-19 limited the amount of public interaction they could have. So, the young trio took their business online and started selling greeting cards on Facebook and Instagram. Printed cards go for $2.50 and custom hand drawn cards go for $4 a piece.

Heroes of Hope set an initial goal of $750 dollars and quickly swept past that. So, the team redoubled their efforts and improved their production line, acquiring stamps, stickers, and more artistic supplies.

courtesy trexorobotics.com

The money goes to pay for Bailey’s intense physical therapy, which includes the use of a Trexo Robotic walker. The device consists of robotic legs and a moveable framework. When strapped to a user’s legs, It allows children with disabilities to stand and walk. It is also customizable, assisting when needed and allowing the user to contribute more as they can. Bailey started her therapy at one per-cent initiation, but by the end of her therapy was initiating 28 per-cent of the walking motion.

Heroes of Hope quickly surpassed their original goal.

It doesn’t stop there, however. “Zed,” “Blaze,” and “F” have committed to a new goal of $4000 with 10 per-cent of those earnings going to the Starlight Foundation.

 

“We want to help other families, once this gets bigger, and donate to other foundations.”
-“Blaze,” 12 years old

Part of that money will also go towards getting Bailey an “eye-gaze” device which allows her to communicate non-verbally using her eye motions. She’s already had some practise with the device, and it’s been very effective.

“Sometimes she says random things, but sometimes she tells us about what she did at school, so it’s really cool.”
-“Zed” 10 years old

All three founding members of Heroes of Hope say they have learned valuable skills from this endeavour. Skills that will help them succeed in life, like

business acumen, social media proficiency, and artistic creativity. But, perhaps most importantly, they say they’ve learned a love for helping others.

 

Click PLAY above, to hear the story of Bailey and Heroes of Hope directly from the remarkable young entrepreneurs themselves.

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