The 2015 Braden’s Hope calendars are on sale right now.
This is the first year that the Kansas City Royals, Sporting Kansas City and Kansas City Chiefs all participated. Players from the teams posed with children battling cancer.
The calendars sell for $10 and all the money goes to Braden’s Hope for Childhood Cancer. The Olathe-based organization provides grants to doctors who are doing research and finding cures for childhood cancers.
Deliece Hofen started Braden’s Hope while her son, Braden, was battling neuroblastoma.
Four years ago, Hofen said, during a conversation with friends around her dining room table, they decided they would reach out to some sports teams and see if they would be interested in the calendar.
It has sold out each year. Now, the Missouri Mavericks have expressed interest in joining effort. And other sports teams around the country have also reached out to try and do the same thing in their cities.
“There are 36 children who are diagnosed every single solitary day in the United States and seven children earn their angel wings every single day,” Hofen said. “It's not OK and this is something we can do to try and bring hope to those kids.”
Many of the players who are featured in the calendar this year have done the calendars in the past. But more important than the money they help raise is the experience they give the children.
“The most important thing from these calendars is watching those kids during the photo shoot,” Hofen said. “There was one little guy after his photo shoot with Dustin Colquitt with the Chiefs that came running up and said, ‘This was the best day ever!’ That's really what it's all about. It's about giving them a chance to kind of get away from the cancer world for a few minutes and get to be a kid and get to do something really special.”
There are 3,000 calendars this year.
You can purchase the calendars at the team store at Kauffman Stadium and Sporting Kansas City. They are also on sale at Harvest Moon Natural Foods in Olathe. Or you can order them online at the Braden’s Hopewebsite.
