Three 9-year-old girls recently donated $102 to the oncology center at UCHealth Longs Peak hospital.
During two consecutive snow days in March, the three girls, Charli, Avri, and Emma, came to Charli’s mother, Chelsea Kantaris, saying that they wanted to bake cookies, sell them and donate the money they earned to cancer.
“So I said you got to do more research on that. Donate to cancer, what does that mean? And so they went and Googled on their iPads and found that you could donate here, to the hospital,” said Kantaris. “I’m very proud of them, all of them. It was completely their idea.”
After the weather got warmer, the three girls held a cookie stand in their neighborhood to raise money. By the end of the day, the girls had earned $102.
“Our original plan was to do a lemonade stand, and then we wanted to do hot chocolate, and then we were like, oh wait, let’s do a cookie stand. We handmade the cookies, and it took a couple of days,” said Charli. “They were sugar cookies, and we cut them in the shape of a ribbon because that’s the symbol for cancer.”
On March 16, the girls dropped off a note, the cookies, and a donation to the oncology center at UC Health Longs Peak.
To acknowledge their act of kindness, hospital staff invited the girls and their families Wednesday to tour the oncology center.
At 4:30 p.m., a crowd of supporters gathered at the Longs Peak Medical Center, 1760 E. Ken Pratt Boulevard, next to the hospital.
Ryan Rohman, president of UC Health Longs Peak and UCHealth Broomfield, thanked the girls for their generous donation.
“A note showed up on my desk and we didn’t know who the three of you were,” Rohman said. “We did a little media campaign searching for you, and we were so excited when you came forward.”
The handwritten note that appeared on Rohman’s desk read, ‘We decided to raise money for cancer because it is good to spread awareness. I hope this 102 dollars for cancer will help you and these cookies. From: Charli.”
In response to the girls’ donation, other members of the community have since donated $2,509 dollars to the oncology center.
“In there, so many patients are scared, they have over 100 visits a year to fight cancer, and oftentimes it’s a financial challenge,” said Rohman. “So the dollars you raise … and the dollars that have now been raised is going to our patient assistance fund … you have raised thousands of dollars now because of your efforts with selling. So we cannot thank you enough for all that you’ve done and how you’ve inspired all of us.”
Jonathan Salazar, the director of oncology services at UCHealth, also spoke.
“When patients are coming for treatment, because of things like this, they can just worry a bit less about focusing on things like paying their light bill or their rent or their mortgage and focus on just getting better,” Salazar said. “We just wanted to say thank you on behalf of all of our patients and thank you to the parents for being amazing parents.”
After Salazar finished speaking, he led the crowd on a tour through the oncology center, showing them where they do screenings of the patients, and displaying the machine used for radiation.
“We are so thrilled that these girls’ kindness is inspiring more kindness,” said Kelly Tracer, UC Health spokeswoman.
If you want to donate to the oncology center, go to longspeakhospitalfoundation.org/charli/ or call 720-718-3015.
