Girl Scouts Assemble Care Packages for Local Chemotherapy Patients

Not all superheroes wear capes.

But the cancer patients receiving one of Jessica Brubaker’s chemo care totes? They will.

Brubaker and Lemont Girl Scout troops 75457 and 70428 spent last Friday stuffing totes full of goodies Brubaker knows, from her own experience fighting cancer, chemotherapy patients will need: superhero socks with capes, Biotene mouthwash, Working Hands hand cream, coloring books and pencils, a reusable water bottle and personalized notes.

The 21 recipients of these care packages will also get a little sweet touch from the troops themselves, though — a box of Girl Scout cookies went into every one.

The troop members, both kindergarteners, or “Daisies,” and fourth-graders, or “Juniors,” raised the money for and purchased all of the supplies that went into the totes, Brubaker said.

When the groups assembled at Saints Cyril and Methodius School on Friday, Brubaker said she talked to them about her #bettereveryday movement, put together the totes, wrote (and drew) personal messages to patients and read a book, “A Girl With a Pink Cape,” together.

The girls’ messages to patients — every tote gets one — were all rainbows and flowers, smiles and blue skies and sun.

“I hope you feel good,” one little girl wrote, scribbling out the extra “e” she’d tacked onto the word “feel.”

“I hope this lit up your day,” another one reads.

One picture, a mix of flowers, hearts, butterflies and a pack of bubblegum saying “feel well,” is topped with a heart-warming “I hope you feel better and take alout of medistion.”

Brubaker started “bettereveryday — a movement that has grown exponentially since she began promoting it in August of 2016 — after completing her own chemotherapy treatment. She’d been diagnosed with breast cancer that April at 32 years old as a mother of two, a wife and a worker.

“There were too many positive reasons to let that day define any aspect of me,” she wrote on the movement’s Facebook page. So, every day, she posts about a new reason to fight whatever battle people are confronting, and 878 people listen.

Some days, the posts are about her daughters. Sometimes they’re about eating well, or indulging. They’re about TV and music, family and food. Last Friday, her reason to get better every day was the troops who dedicated their Friday afternoon to helping hospital patients.

“Today I had the privilege of meeting 21 of the biggest hearts I have ever met,” she wrote, and posted a passage from the book they all read together.

“Always remember and never forget that what we do matters, no time for regret. Our time here is short, and we grow up so fast...it’s when we spread kindness our legacy lasts.”

Brubaker said that since last August, her movement has delivered 155 chemo care totes to patients undergoing treatment in 13 states, grown to more than 870 members across the U.S. and sent care packages to people as far as 1,770 miles away.

Learn more about the #bettereveryday movement, how to donate or help the cause and more here.

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Photos courtesy of Jessica Brubaker