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Around the Park: Ben Oaks kids create art for ALS

Mackenzie Hackett, 10 and her brother Colin, 13, of Ben Oaks are making some tough choices for their latest fundraising activity "Severna Park Kids Coloring for ALS."

By LESLIE HUNT Staff writer
Published October 30, 2008

The Hackett family of Ben Oaks are troopers in the fight to find a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, the incurable disease that took the life of baseball great Lou Gehrig in 1941.

The family of four holds a Halloween party and haunted trail at their house every other year; asking their costumed guests to bring donations for the ALS Association of Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia. This Halloween is an "off" year for the party. However, the Hacketts have come up with something new to fill in, and not let the opportunity to raise money slip by.

Volunteering time for a good cause is nothing new to Colin, a seventh-grader at Severna Park Middle School and MacKenzie, a fifth-grader at Benfield Elementary School.

The siblings, with the guidance of their parents, Shonna and Mike, sought original colorful artwork from other Ben Oaks children ages 2 and older, to use on an assortment of holiday and all-occasion greeting cards.

They received about 60 pieces of art from 30 kids, and 40 works were chosen to use on the cards. All of the proceeds from the sale of the cards will benefit the ALS Association.

Shonna said that, during the past few weeks, the family has collected the creative drawings and has had to make some difficult decisions about which pictures would actually make it to print.

"If it showed that they gave it a lot of effort, we tried to include them," she said, adding that next year they hope to get a jump-start earlier to avoid the rush of choosing the artwork and getting them printed.

Thirty boxes of the cards have already sold, and Shonna sent an e-mail out to her neighbors Tuesday night and received two orders yesterday morning.

The inspiration to raise money for ALS came when Mike's mother, Diane Hackett, died of the disease in 2003. The family has been doing some type of fundraiser to raise money for the foundation each year since then.

"It is such a horrid disease, one of those diseases that doesn't get talked about - almost everyone knows someone who has it (ALS)," Shonna said.

The family also collects donations for the annual ALS walk. However, Shonna decided this year to try this approach to heighten the interest. "If they could get something out of it with the economy the way it is, at least it would be something," she said.

The cards will be sold as an assortment with 20 cards per pack for $12 each, or two for $20. Holiday and all-occasion packages will be available for purchase from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 8 at the Benfield Boutique, held at Benfield Elementary School, 365 Lynwood Drive, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 23 at the ALS Boutique being held at the Sheraton Annapolis Hotel, 173 Jennifer Road.

For more information about the event, e-mail Mrs. Schwartz at ALSfundraiser@verizon.net.

The printing was done by Merle Lebowitz of Press Express, Inc.

http://www.hometownannapolis.com:80/...8/10_30-64/CSP