“I’m gonna be ugly, Mommy.” The first words out of a six-year-old girl’s mouth as she sat in a hospital bed when she found out she had cancer and was going to lose all of her hair. Everything changed when she met the team from Beautifully Loved at a volunteer event at Dell Children's Blood and Cancer Center.

After getting permission from her doctors and having the Beautifully Loved beauty teams gear up in protective clothing, the young girl, in isolation getting chemotherapy, received a pamper treatment. At the same time, her mother received a hair and makeup treatment from the beauty teams. The mother stood up after receiving her makeover and glanced at her daughter who just received the pamper treatment. As she stared at her daughter’s face which was covered with a sparkling smile from ear to ear, she said, "You have no idea how important the work you [Beautifully Loved] are doing is for kids like her." She started crying tears of joy as she embraced her daughter. 

Pearson Student Programs annually partners with a non-profit organization or hospital to create positive impacts in our local communities. Last year, we supported Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee and collected over $5000 worth of gifts from an Amazon Wishlist. This year, Pearson Student Programs and the student-led Social Impact and Sustainability Team is supporting Beautifully Loved, a nonprofit based in Austin, Texas. Beautifully Loved supports families with children who are battling chronic illnesses by offering pamper days, photography, clothing support, self-esteem workshops, design programs, fashion events, and care packages. 

The team created an Amazon wishlist to donate items which Beautifully Loved volunteers use to create care packages for the families they serve. In order to match and hopefully surpass last year’s positive social impact, we have more work to do. Join us in supporting Beautifully Loved as they continue to uplift and empower children and their families by showing them that they are truly beautiful—both inside and out. 

To learn more about Beautifully Loved, please visit beautifullyloved.org.

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