South Shores resident makes bracelets to cheer Wolfson patients
What started as a cure for boredom during Jacksonville’s stay-at-home order has turned into a gift to the young patients at Wolfson Children’s Hospital.
After learning the skill of making bracelets from a friend at school, 10-year-old Mackenzie Meyer of South Shores decided to teach others how to make the handmade treasures during a special event held at Majenhoff Park Aug. 8.
“I started at school because my friend did it and she teached (sic) me how to do it, and I thought that it would be cool to keep on doing it,” Mackenzie said. “I hope to donate enough to give one to every patient and all the nurses at Wolfson Children’s Hospital. I will need to make a couple hundred because there are a lot of kids there, which is really sad.”
After learning at school, Mackenzie perfected her skill during quarantine when her parents bought the supplies to help her keep busy. Later she learned to make rope bracelets and negotiated with her mother, who was eight-months pregnant, on how to best share them with others in her neighborhood. She made up little bags with a bracelet in each and included a special “happy” message, and went out on her bike, accompanied by her neighbors, Pam and Bobby Back, to sell them door to door for a $1. “They were bags with happy thoughts. She was just spreading a little joy in the neighborhood,” said her grandmother, Beth Meyer. Mackenzie continued to spread the love later by writing each customer an individual thank-you note and delivering it, her grandmother said.
“The Backs walked with me on my bike,” Mackenzie said. “I was too young to sell them online, so my mom and me negotiated that I could sell them in the neighborhood. We walked around and I got to meet a lot of neighbors. I saw that I was making people happy so I negotiated with my mom to see if we could do an event for Wolfson Children’s Hospital, and we ended up here,” she said.
Conscious of the care that needs to be taken during the COVID-19 pandemic, the bracelets will be sterilized twice by the hospital and put into quarantine for 14 days after being donated, said Beth Meyer.
“I think it’s absolutely wonderful,” said Mackenzie’s mother, Mindi Meyer, who attended the bracelet-making event with her month-old son, Cooper. “Mackenzie has reshifted her focus on selling the bracelets. She saw how happy it made people so she thought she should teach people how to make these bracelets and get some help so we can donate them to the children at Wolfson Children’s Hospital.”
By Marcia Hodgson
Resident Community News
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