BROCKVILLE -- A cookie campaign to raise funds for a young Brockville girl has received overwhelming support from the community.
Five-year-old Hope MacCallum was diagnosed with leukemia in September, forced to miss school and go for treatment an hour away in Kingston.
When family friend Erica Cadoret heard of the diagnosis, she reached out to the Sweet Life Café to start a fundraising campaign.
"I have Jen on my Facebook, and immediately sent her the GoFundMe and I think within an hour she said 'absolutely, I’ll start the campaign tomorrow,'" Cadoret said.
"She came up with the flyer, she came up with the whole kid friendly cookies and it was amazing and it took off from there," Cadoret added.
The campaign, called "Cookies for Hope" offered bags of six cookies for $4, with $2 going to the MacCallum family to cover costs while Hope undergoes treatment.
"There's a lot of financial burden on them...Gas, meals, babysitting, everything," said Jennifer Mills of Sweet Life Café.
"Within 24 hours we had over 800 cookies ordered," said Mills, nothing the orders grew into the thousands.
"We’ve already done 900 out of the just over 3,000 cookies that have been ordered and the rest will be done this weekend."
The deadline for cookie orders is Saturday, Oct. 10.
"It’s amazing how in such a time like this people can pull together," said Mills
"If you can't pre-order, we’re going to have cookies the day of the fundraiser, October the 13th, come in and purchase out of the showcase."
Cadoret was also contacted from a mother in Smiths Falls about another kind of fundraiser.
"She heard the story, I had put the GoFundMe on a local mom's page on Facebook and she shared her story,” said Cadoret.
"She had a daughter in her 40s that lost the battle with cancer and she had bracelets for Hope and that was her (daughter’s) name, Hope! She immediately said that she had a whole bunch of bracelets and she would like to donate them and I could have them," Cadoret said.
"Within a day they were on my front step here...Within three days they were gone. And I ordered another 150."
The purple bracelets say "Hope for Hope" in yellow writing and come in two sizes for adults and kids.
Cadoret has been selling them for $3 a piece.
She has also been reached by others offering meals and other things to help.
"I’ve had people wanting to cook dinners for the MacCallums, if they could have their address to send cookies. It’s just been an outpouring. I can't believe it," Cadoret said.
Hope’s principal, Jennifer Feenstra from Heritage Community Christian School in New Dublin says Hope is missed by her classmates.
"After a long closure through the spring and summer, the students were looking forward to coming back to school. We miss Hope and we look forward to having her and her family back here at the school and we look forward to seeing her healthy and back in class," said Feenstra.
She said donations have also been coming into the school to help the family.
"The community just really started coming together, it touched peoples hearts and everyone who either knew Hope and loved her, and wanted to help," Feenstra said.
"Donations started coming into the school, which we passed onto the family and then we saw different campaigns going, the cookie campaign so we decided to share the information and let people know."
Feenstra said hope has been making candles in her spare time at home to keep busy.
"This morning on Instagram, Hope herself has been making candles to sell and put the money into her piggy bank and her mom commented that it keeps her busy and gives her something to do," said Feenstra.
"They are a strong family and they have lots of support, lots of people praying for them and helping them get through it."
Cadoret, adding that even through all the treatments, Hope still has a sense of humour.
"The treatments are working but for a 5-year-old to understand it, she's getting bald spots in her hair and her hair is starting to fall out. For a 5-year-old, I'ts a lot and she made a joke and said she wanted a rainbow wig," Cadoret said, smiling.
"Halloween is coming."
As of Thursday afternoon, the GoFundMe page set up for the family had raised $14,290 of a $15,000 goal.
In an update on the page Oct. 2, tests showed that Hope is cancer free, but will still have to travel to Kingston for chemo treatments for the next two years.
To donate, visit the GoFundMe page.
